Becoming
by heartoftheshadow
Summary: A different take on the Season 6 finale. Instead of returning to Earth, back to his old sociopathic ways, Kai continues to be affected by the conscience he got from Luke after merging with him. Ends up leading into a Season 7 AU. Mostly Bonnie/Kai, with some Tyler/Liv, Jo/Alaric, Stefan/Valerie, Damon/Elena, and Caroline/Enzo (brief Steroline).
1. Part 1

**Becoming**

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _So this is more or less an alternate take on 6x22, where the Gemini Coven lives and Kai continues to be influenced by the Merge. I'm not sure whether I'm going to continue this story or not beyond this first chapter, I guess it'll depend on how much of a reaction I get to it. I've wanted to write this story for a while now, ever since being inspired by a post I saw on Tumblr, I can't remember who posted it and I can't find the post anymore, but it went something along the lines of "give me a finale where Kai kills his father and not his sister, etc." And what can I say, I like the idea so much I was inspired to write a story based on it and I wish I could send a message to this blog and ask for permission to use this idea, but I can't find it so. Enjoy._

 **Wedding Location...**

Alaric Saltzman was standing before his fiancee Josette "Jo" Laughlin, both of them smiling and staring lovingly into one another's eyes. To Alaric's left was Damon, and to Jo's left was Elena, and standing a little off to the side, by the chairs, was Jo's father, Joshua Parker.

"Neither one of us should be here right now. We've spend our life dodging fate and beating the odds," Alaric started with, a genuine smile on his face as he looked into Jo's eyes.

Damon and Elena gave one another meaningful looks as Alaric continued to speak. "But, because we did, I got to meet you, the most beautiful, hilarious and intimidatingly brilliant woman I have ever known. You inspire me, you've shown me that happiness is actually something that I can have in my life. And so..." Alaric paused, taking the ring from Tyler and putting it on Jo's finger. "I promise to be with you, and love you, and to dodge fate with you, for the rest of our lives."

Jo began to cry a little. "Josette?" the Reverend asked, waiting for her to say her vow next.

"Oh god, that's a tough act to follow," Jo replied, to the laughter of almost everyone at the wedding. "Here it goes, Alaric Saltzman, you are-"

Jo was suddenly interrupted by a loud gasping sound in the room. She and Alaric looked over to Jo's father, Joshua Parker, who was clutching his belly tightly with one hand, clearly in pain. "Dad?" Jo asked. "Are you okay?"

Suddenly, Joshua Parker fell forward on to the ground below, unconscious. Now standing behind the unconscious Joshua Parker, was Kai, holding a bloody hunting knife in one hand, a somewhat angry look on his face. "I debated on whether or not I should wait until after you said your vows to kill dear old dad, but then I realized, I'm really not one for waiting," Kai said bitterly, staring directly at Jo while he spoke, Jo too distracted by the sight of her father dying to pay attention to what Kai was saying.

"Oh my god, dad-"

"Not so fast sis," Kai interrupted, holding up one hand and magically creating a high pitched noise, everyone at the wedding immediately putting their hands over their ears instinctively, with the exception of Jo who put her hands over her belly, some screaming out in pain, others merely grunting.

"Miss me? No? Oh well," Kai added with a slight smile on his face. The noise he had created was so powerful that every glass and window in the building shattered, glass scattering everywhere, Elena falling over and smacking her head against the ground as she fell. Damon immediately ran over to her as soon as he saw her hit the ground, only to find that she was bleeding and unconscious. Desperately, Damon pulled her up onto his lap, a devastated look on his face. She was that much more vulnerable now that she was a human again.

"Elena?" Damon asked, Elena not responding. "Come on. Hey, wake up. Elena?"

Damon brought one wrist up to his mouth and bit into the veins with his vampire teeth, creating an open wound. He then placed his bleeding wrist against Elena's lips, trying to feed her his blood. "Come on, just drink it," he begged, the blood simply dribbling down Elena's chin as he tried to force some into Elena's mouth. "No, no, no, no."

At the other end of the altar, was Alaric and Jo, who had been knocked off their feet by Kai's sound spell as well. Alaric got up first, helping Jo, who was scanning the room for Kai with her eyes, but it was no use, Kai had cast another cloaking spell on himself, becoming invisible to the eyes of everyone in the room. "Kai!" Jo shouted angrily. "Show yourself!"

"Stefan? STEFAN?" Damon called, still holding an unconscious Elena in his arms.

Elsewhere in the building, Stefan and Caroline got to their feet, both of them drenched in their own blood, having been cut by broken glass and other projectiles. Stefan immediately looked for Damon, spotting him kneeling on the floor at the altar, holding an unconscious Elena. Stefan's eyes widened at the sight of it all. Stefan, using his enhanced vampire speed, ran over to Damon and Elena, Caroline following.

"She won't wake up," Damon said to Stefan and Caroline.

"Oh my god," Caroline replied worriedly.

"She won't wake up. I don't understand. I gave her my blood, but—she can't take it. Nothing's working."

"Get her to the hospital, _now_ ," Stefan ordered.

Damon nodded, suddenly realizing that that was the obvious solution. "Yeah," he said in response, scooping Elena up in his arms and running out of the building with her at vampire speed.

Caroline turned to Stefan with a fearful look in her eyes. "She's human, what if she doesn't-"

But before Caroline could finish her sentence, her neck was snapped, along with Stefan's, by a seemingly unseen force. As they fell to the floor, unconscious, Kai uncloaked himself again, standing a few feet behind them, revealing himself as the culprit. "Nothing personal, but this is a family matter now," Kai stated.

Kai turned to Alaric and Jo, who were both staring at him with hatred in their eyes. "You know, out of curiosity, what are you the most upset about right now? The fact that I crashed your wedding, the fact that I just injured many of your guests—oh, or the fact that I just murdered our father, 'cause I have to say if it's the last one, the guy was a bit of a dick to say the least."

"He was _our_ father," Jo replied angrily, fighting back tears in her eyes.

"Who once tried to kill you to stop me from getting out of the Prison World. And cared about the wellbeing of the coven more than the wellbeing of his own children. You can understand why I feel no remorse for stabbing him in the back?"

Jo shook her head. "No, all you did, was prove you were the _monster_ we always thought you were. I knew you hadn't changed. You can't."

Kai looked genuinely hurt by Jo's words for a moment before shaking them off. "Well, I guess when your family decides that your nothing but an irredeemable piece of trash... the best thing to do is prove them right, right?" Kai asked rhetorically, holding out one arm and telekinetically lifting and hurling a somewhat small piece of shattered glass into Alaric's belly, wounding him. Alaric gasped, collapsing on to the ground shortly afterwards, one hand over, Jo panicking and kneeling down beside him, immediately examining her fiancee's injury.

Kai tried to fight back feelings of regret as he watched Jo tend to the wounded Alaric, Luke's empathy for others still influencing him, to his frustration. He couldn't be a good man, but he couldn't be the monster he use to be either. A part of him wanted to apologize to Jo and help her, another part of him wanted to finish the job and kill his pregnant sister while he was at it.

" _Sanguinem filio. Sanguinem effurgarex perpetuum."_

Kai looked around, noticing members of his own coven, getting to their feet and reciting a spell, all of them staring at him as they spoke. He quickly noticed one of them was holding a device in their hand that seemed to resemble an Ascendant. Kai could barely contain his anger. "Let me guess, Prison World? I don't think so."

Telekinetically, Kai moved another shard of broken glass from the ground into one hand, and held that shard of glass up to his carotid artery, every witch in the room closing their mouths almost instantly, some of them gasping in shock and fear. "I'm not going to anymore Prison Worlds. I'll kill himself before that happens, and don't think I won't do it. And if I die... you all die with me. And somehow, I don't think all of you hate me that much, that you'd rather die than have me as your leader."

The Gemini coven witches seemed at a loss of what to do next.

 **The Salvatore Boarding House...**

Bonnie was standing in the kitchen of the Salvatore Boarding House, where Matt was bandaging up her slit wrists from when Kai attacked her earlier. Her cellphone, which was out on the counter near them, began to vibrate furiously. Bonnie grabbed her phone to check to see who the caller was. Once she saw it was Damon, she answered it quickly. "Damon!"

Bonnie could hear Damon sigh in relief on the other end. _"Ah._ _Bonnie Bennett. You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice right now."_

"Damon, Kai's out-" Bonnie said anxiously, only for Damon to interrupt her.

" _I know. I'm glad you're safe. I was worried the pork-rind munching freak already got to you."_

"He _did_. And I don't know how, but I'm still alive. He took a lot of blood and that's all."

" _That's not all. He crashed the wedding. He killed Jo's dad, and god knows how many other people."_

Bonnie was stunned. "Oh my god."

" _And Elena got knocked out, and she's not waking up. The doctors say she should've woken up by now. I don't know what to do Bon."_

Bonnie hesitated. "Just—stay there, okay? I'm on my way."

 **On the Road, Outside Mystic Falls...**

Stefan and Caroline were scrunched in the backseat of a car. Caroline started to wake up, only to find that she was laying with her head against Stefan's chest. A little embarrassed, Caroline quickly sat up, seeing Enzo in the driver's seat, a confused look on her face.

"Oh good, you're up. Sorry to be indecorous, but you were both _solidly_ unconscious when I pulled you from the wedding mayhem," Enzo said as he continued to drive.

"Where are we going? ...Elena!"

"Elena is in the hospital with Damon," Enzo assured her. "Kai's rampage seems to be far from over, but your friends Alaric and Jo were alive when I left them. And, I grabbed the two of you to help me deal with a bigger problem."

"There's a _bigger problem_?!" Caroline asked, exasperated.

 **Warehouse District, Just Outside of Mystic Falls...**

Caroline, Enzo, and a newly awakened Stefan arrived at a block of warehouses just outside of Mystic Falls. Stefan quickly found his mother Lily, desperately opening warehouse door after warehouse door. "Valerie? Malcolm?" Lily called out.

When Lily realized that there was no one in the storage space, she closed the door she had just opened. Stefan sighed as he approached her, an annoyed look on his face. "Mom, get in the car, please."

"1702 Route 12. That's... That's where we are, right? I mean I read the map very carefully. He... He said they would be here. They're probably scared out of their minds," Lily replied, rambling anxiously.

"Who are you talking about?"

Lily opened the door to another storage space and searched it. "My friends. Kai brought them back with him when he escaped the Prison World," Lily briefly scanned the space with her eyes, before realizing they weren't in there. She turned around to face Stefan. "They're here, somewhere, I know they are. He didn't—he didn't lie to me."

"Yeah, he did. I think that should be kinda obvious to you by now. There's _nobody_ out here. You made a deal with a sociopath, and now a lot of people are _dead_. You're wasting your time!"

Lily walked away from him, ignoring what he'd just said, to his further frustration.

 **Outside the Wedding Location...**

Just outside the barn where the wedding was being held, Tyler and Liv were laying in the grass, both of them covered in blood, having been thrown outside by the force of Kai's spells. Both of them were just barely conscious, Liv crawling over closer to Tyler, only to realize that he had a rather large piece of glass lodged in his stomach. He wasn't going to last much longer. Without any medical treatment, Tyler was going to die.

"Oh, Tyler. Oh god, no. This can't be happening. Jo! _Jo!_ " Liv cried out desperately, with tears in her eyes. " _Jo!_ "

Tyler looked up at Liv, trying with all his might to hang in there. "I'm going to die here, aren't I?"

"No you're not," Liv assured him, taking one of his hands and holding it tightly with both of hers. "Jo will get here, and she'll save you. She's a doctor, that's what she does, she's probably seen worst than this."

"I love you, Liv."

"No, Tyler come on, don't die on me, don't die, please don't die. You can't, not after everything," Liv pleaded, but Tyler was looking weaker by the second. Liv looked up at the night sky, searching for the moon. _It was full._ Liv took a deep breathe in before looking back over to Tyler. "It's a full moon. If you turn, it will heal you. I'm not losing anyone else I love."

Tyler shook his head, appalled by the suggestion. "I'm not killing you. No."

"You have to. It's your best chance at survival. Do it."

"No."

Just then Kai stumbled upon the two of them, staring at them for a moment with a conflicted look on his face. Neither of them seemed to notice he was there at first. "That does _not_ look good. If I had to guess, I'd say rich boy over here has maybe ten or so minutes left to live, if he's lucky," Kai interrupted.

Liv turned around as soon as she heard Kai's voice, a furious look on her face. Kai stood there, perfectly still, as Liv ran up to him and put her hands on his throat, attempting to strangle him, only for Kai to grab her hands, stopping her. "You, this is all _your_ fault! It wasn't enough for you to kill my brothers and sisters, my twin—my _best_ friend, you had to kill my dad too!" Liv cried.

"I know, I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?!"

"Well, somewhat. But that's not important right now. What's important is that your boyfriend is dying and I'm the only one who can do anything about it."

"Why would you help me?!"

"Because Luke loved you. And when I merged with him..." Kai paused, Liv growing more emotional by the second. He let go of Liv's hands. "Whether you want to believe it or not, when we merged, I gained his ability to feel empathy for others. It's really _annoying_ at times, not to mention inconvenient. It's why I couldn't bring myself to burn you alive that day in the Boarding House, even though I _really_ wanted to... As hard as I try to ignore it, it's still there. And right now, I wanna make up for some of the damage I've done, by helping you help him. If you'll let me."

Liv hesitated. "Okay, next question, _how_ can you help me?"

Kai took a vial of vampire blood out of one of his suit pockets, to Liv's surprise. "With this. Vampire blood. It'll heal him. Give it to him and he'll live."

Liv shook her head. "I won't. I'm not going to put _his_ life in the hands of a known psychopath. I've seen what happens to people who are stupid enough to trust you."

"If you don't give him the blood, he is going to die. Look, you don't trust me, I get it. You hate me for taking your brother away from me, I get that too. But if you don't give him the blood, he is going to _die_."


	2. Part 2

**Becoming**

 **Part 2**

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _The next chapter is here, and as you can probably guess, I've decided to continue with this story and see it through to the end. Hopefully you all like this chapter, and to any new readers, I say hello. I'm a huge fan of the BonKai ship, and the idea of Bonnie and Kai together romantically, but that can't exactly happen anytime soon in this continuity without Bonnie being very OOC. Nevertheless, Kai does have feelings for Bonnie in this story, and in spite of herself, Bonnie finds herself attracted to him, but doesn't want to be because she still hasn't accepted yet that Kai has changed for the better. Anyways, enjoy, and leave a review if you want._

 **Warehouse District...**

Stefan was continuing to try and get Lily to leave with him, but she stubbornly continued to search various warehouses, ignoring her son. "Let me guess, not there either," Stefan remarked, clearly frustrated.

Lily looked back at Stefan, an annoyed look on her face as well. "Did you come all this way just to mock me?"

"No, I came here to put you back in your cell where you belong," Stefan replied.

"I don't _need_ a cell, what I _need_ is my family. Do you still not understand that? The hope of being reunited with them is enough to make me overcome my urges, my cravings."

"They're not _your family_! Okay?! They're just a bunch of random people that you happened to sire! Damon and I, we're your family. Your sons. If that even means anything to you anymore."

Lily looked offended by Stefan's words. "I spent a short time with both you and your brother, and... I was never happy during that time, it wasn't your fault, and it wasn't Damon's. I spent a century and a half with these _random people I sired_. That century and a half, I was happier then than I ever was when I was a mother, or a wife. My relationship with these people is a deeper bond than I have _ever_ known."

Stefan gritted his teeth, a little hurt. "Lily, you either come with me right now, or you're out of my life. Do you understand me? _Your son_. Your _actual_ son."

"I'm sorry," Lily said in what seemed to be a genuinely apologetic tone, before she went back to searching other warehouses. "Malcolm, are you here sweetheart?"

Stefan then used his vampire speed and threw Lily up against a wall, his hand on her throat, choaking her, a cold look in his eyes. "What did you give Kai?!"

Lily threw him a confused look. "I thought you were leaving."

" _Tell me_ what you gave Kai in return for your family!"

Lily hesitated. "...I gave him... my blood."

Stefan stared at Lily in horror for a moment. If Kai took Lily's blood and died, he would become a heretic, and his entire coven would die as he went into transition. He somehow doubted that Kai would want Lily's blood for any other purpose.

 **Just Outside the Wedding Location...**

Kai watched anxiously as Liv helped Tyler sit upright, placing the open glass vial filled with vampire blood against his lips, and forcing him to ingest it, a worried look on her face. She then looked down at Tyler's wound and noticed it had already started to heal a little. Liv looked into Tyler's eyes for a moment, Tyler nodding, and Liv putting down the vial and placing a hand on the shard of glass in Tyler's belly, quickly pulling it out, Tyler screaming while she did.

"He should be fine now," Kai said, Liv turning her head around to look back at him. "I mean it may take a few more minutes for the wound to fully close but, you know if he hadn't had the blood... he would've died."

"I know," Liv replied.

"Okay."

"But this doesn't change anything."

Kai looked a little taken aback by this. "What do you mean?"

"He wouldn't have had that piece of glass in his belly if not for you. And last time I checked, you still killed every one of my siblings except for Jo, and you just killed my dad earlier. We're not on good terms Kai. We're never going to be. And I sure as hell will never consider you family, or the leader of our coven."

Slowly, Kai nodded, seemingly accepting this. "I know. I—I don't expect you to ever forgive me."

"Good, because I won't," Liv said, turning back to face Tyler, focusing on him again, Kai watching the pair sadly for a moment before turning around and walking away, leaving the couple be.

 **Elsewhere outside the Wedding Location...**

In the field outside the barn, Jo helped a still recovering Alaric into their car. Once he sat down, Jo closed the car door for him, and walked over to the other side of the car, sitting herself down on the driver's seat and closing her car door, an exhausted look on her face. She turned to look over at Alaric, not having started the car yet. "Well, we almost got married," Jo said with a half hearted smile on her face, tearing up a little.

"We'll have another ceremony. As soon as your ready," Alaric replied reassuringly, putting one hand on Jo's face.

"But my dad won't be there to walk me down the aisle when I am. And who knows how long it'll be before my unstable, sociopathic twin brother decides to finish off the rest of his family, which would include me and Liv, and the babies I'm carrying-"

Alaric reached over and pulled Jo into a half hug, Jo hugging Alaric back. "Shh, it's going to be okay. Once we know Elena is alright, we're out of here, okay? We're getting out of town for good, we'll have Bonnie cast a few cloaking spells, Kai will never find us, even if he's really determined to."

"I can't believe I almost forgot about Elena. I was too focused on Kai, and my dad."

"She fell when Kai cast that spell, and smacked her head off the ground while she did. Damon took her to the hospital I think, since she took the cure vampire blood can't heal her. Or at least that was the case with her doppelganger Katherine. I actually don't know why Enzo's blood healed me, my body should've rejected the blood just like Katherine's did."

"Well you weren't made human again by a magic potion either."

"You're right, I was made human again by a Traveler's spell and a really good doctor who just happened to be at the right place at the right time," Alaric replied, smiling widely at Jo.

"I'll call Damon, find out what hospital he took Elena to."

Alaric's look changed from a somewhat happy one to a very worried one. "Let's do that. Hopefully she's already awake and on the road to recovery."

Jo nodded, looking almost just as worried. "Hopefully."

 **Mystic Falls Hospital...**

Elena was lying in a hospital bed, still completely unconscious, Damon standing nearby. After staring at Elena's unconscious body for a moment with an overwhelmed look on his face, Damon sat down beside her on the bed, swallowing hard as he did. He didn't know what he was going to do if Elena didn't pull through. The last doctor told him that what she suffered from was head trauma, and that she could wake up any time now, but the longer she spent sleeping, the less likely it was that she was ever going to wake up.

 **Elena's Dream Space/The Salvatore Boarding House...**

Elena suddenly found herself standing in the kitchen of the Salvatore Boarding House, Kai standing a few feet away from her, letting out a small sigh of relief. "Of course Elena Gilbert would survive a simple fall. I don't know why I was even worried."

Elena took a few steps back, startled at the sight of Kai. "Kai, what am I doing here, why aren't I at the wedding, what have you done to me?" Elena asked.

Kai let out another sigh. "Your memory is a little impaired. I, uh, I crashed the wedding. Made a big scene. Did a few little magic tricks. Long story short, you fell, hit your head pretty hard, and now you're lying unconscious somewhere, probably in a hospital since vampire blood won't do you any good, what with being cured and all, getting the best care possible."

Elena looked shocked for a moment, then nodded, starting to remember what Kai was referring to. "So I'm dreaming right now, aren't I?"

" _Sort of_. Normally when your dreaming, you control it, but since this dream was created by yours truly, I control it."

"Why are you here right now? What, are you looking to cause me some more pain while you're at it, maybe torture me?"

Kai shook his head. "No. God no. I got the whole revenge thing out of my system for the moment. And now I'm dealing with the aftermath, you know, the guilt and the remorse and whatnot."

Elena folded her arms, looking at Kai incredulously. "So what are you going to do with this _guilt and remorse_? Apologize?"

"Well that was the plan, make myself feel a little better about this whole mess I've created. Even though you were one of the ones who left me behind in that 1903 Prison World to _die_. You, Damon and Bonnie, wanted to punish me for my wicked deeds."

"Well seeing as how you left Bonnie to die in a Prison World too once, and you just interrupted my friends' wedding not to mention gave me head trauma by the sounds of things, I'd say we're about even. Well, we will be once you apologize, and wake me up."

Kai hesitated. "About that, I can only do one of those things. You're going to have to wake up on your own. Which hopefully you will any minute now."

"And—what if I don't wake up on my own? What then?"

"Well... then you'll die, and my apology will have been for nothing. And all your loved ones are gonna hate my guts for as long as I live."

Elena shook her head, frowning. "So let me get this straight, you can travel between _entire worlds_ with your magic, but you can't help me regain consciousness?"

Kai laughed a little. "Believe it or not Elena, there isn't a spell for everything. Look at it this way, if you do die, then all of your loved ones, especially Damon, will be devastated and do whatever they can to avenge you and make your meaningless death matter. Which is more than what anybody would ever do for Bonnie."

Elena looked at Kai in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, according to Damon, Bonnie died once and no one even noticed, the only one who knew she was dead Jeremy and you guys only found out she was dead, after Jeremy told Damon, who told the rest of you. Kinda sad if you asked me. She use to sacrifice herself for others constantly, and yet, people will always care about her best friend, Elena Gilbert, more than they will ever care about her."

"That's a load of crap-"

"Is it though? Tell me, was any of that story Damon told me made up? Any part of it exaggerated?"

Elena hesitated. "Jeremy... just did a really good job of covering up her death. And she was helping him, from the Other Side. She didn't want any of us to know."

"Yet another example of her selflessness, didn't want anyone to even grieve or mourn her loss. Well I think I'll be on my way now if you don't mind. Again, hopefully you wake up, but if not... again, at least you'll have the comfort of knowing your presence will be missed by many," Kai replied, turning around and slowly fading away into thin air before Elena's eyes. Elena let out a sigh, knowing everything Kai just said had more than a bit of truth to it.

 **Enzo's Car, by the Warehouse District...**

Caroline was sitting in the backseat of Enzo's car, texting away on her cellphone, Enzo sitting in the driver's seat, the car parked and unmoving. "So you and Stefan certainly seemed cozy back there," Enzo noted.

"We're just friends," Caroline replied without even looking up from her phone, her eyes glued to the screen.

"Right, cozy, backseat kind of friends."

"We were unconscious and you shoved us on top of each other—you know what no, it's not _important—_ Elena's not waking up. She's in some sort of coma, doctors are saying it's a result of head trauma or something."

Enzo looked confused for a moment. "Why don't you just feed her your blood?"

"Obviously vampire blood doesn't work when the cure is inside of _you_ ," Caroline snapped.

"Fine, obviously."

"This isn't happening," Caroline said to herself quietly. "She's gonna wake up, she's only been human for like five seconds, and Damon was going to be human with her, and they had this whole human life plan-"

Enzo turned around, interrupting Caroline's train of thought, a sympathetic look on his face. "I'll take you to the hospital, you can be with her."

Caroline paused, looking up from her cellphone, a little surprised by what Enzo was offering. "...Thank you."

Stefan interrupted the pair, opening one of the back car doors and slipping into the seat next to Caroline's, Caroline moving over a little as he did.

 **Salvatore Boarding House/Reality...**

Matt walked into the parlor of the Salvatore Boarding House, where he found Bonnie sitting on the couch with a worried look on her face, to Matt's concern. "Bonnie, let's go. We got to get to the hospital," Matt said, but Bonnie acted as though she didn't hear a word he just said. Matt walked closer towards her. "What's wrong?" he asked, then spotting a camera in Bonnie's hands. On the back of the camera, there was a post-it note that read 'watch me'. "Why do you have that?"

"I found it in the kitchen," Bonnie replied, handing the camera to Matt, who took it from her and pressed the playbutton.

Matt watched as Kai's face appeared on the screen of the camera, Matt frowning as he did. "All this time travel's been hard on the camera, Bon," he paused, letting out a sigh. "You saw the post it. _This message will self-destruct in ten seconds,_ " he continued, mimicking a robot, laughing a little as he did, before becoming more serious, letting out another sigh. "Kidding. Anyhow, you're probably wondering why you're still alive, since you probably think I would have bled you out, one painful ounce at a time. I mean, that's the me you thought you left behind in the 1903 Prison World. The me you left behind in that Prison World was a changed man. But there was no way you we're going to accept that. And I guess I can't really blame you... I hurt you a lot Bonnie, I'm well aware of that. And I would say sorry again, but what's the point, since you didn't wanna hear it the first time I said it. I guess you're probably wondering right about now how I got out of that 1903 Prison World in the first place. You see you forgot about that old Canadian rock filled with Bennett blood. I didn't. So I used that rock to get myself, and some new friends I made that world, out of there. Relax. They're not going to hurt you. I made a deal with them, before I broke us out.

The deal was, they didn't hurt you, or anyone in my coven once they got out. And how do I plan to keep them to this promise you might ask? I mean, they're bunch of blood thirsty lunatics, why would I trust a word they say? Well, I took some of your blood, and I cast a pretty powerful protection spell on you. From now on, as long as the spell remains active, if anyone kills you, they die with you. The heretics know this, or if they've forgotten, they'll certainly remember once they see the new mark on your wrist. So no need to worry about them. Anyhow, I think I've talked for long enough now so I'm going to sign off. See you around Bonnie Bennett."

Matt gave the camera back to Bonnie, a perplexed look on his face. Bonnie turned over her left wrist and Matt stared at it for a moment, noticing a weird, black tattoo on it of a strange symbol—the mark Kai was referring to in his video. "What does this mean?" Matt asked. "Why would he do this, I thought he hated you?"

"He does. It's gotta be a trap. It always is with Kai. I don't believe for one second that a sociopath like him could've changed for the better. I just... need to found out what the trap is before it's too late."

"I don't know Bon but... I actually don't think it's a trap. Maybe-"

Bonnie gritted her teeth. "Matt, don't say it."

Matt nodded, not wanting to upset his friend anymore than she was already upset. "Alright. I won't."


	3. Part 3

**Becoming**

 **Part Three**

 **Author's Note:** _Sorry it took so long for the next chapter to be posted. Midterm exams and whatnot got in the way. I apologize if this chapter isn't as good as the first two chapters. Anyways, enjoy, and thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited and/or followed this story so far, and hello to any new readers.  
_

 **Mystic Falls Hospital...**

Damon was standing a few feet away from Elena's hospital bed, talking to Bonnie on his cellphone, which he had up to one ear, a worried look on his face. "Bonnie, you were suppose to head straight to the hospital, Elena hasn't woke up yet, I could really use one of your quick fix it spells right about now-"

" _Damon, Kai marked me,"_ Bonnie replied.

"What do you mean he _marked_ you?"

" _As in he cast some sort of spell on me using my blood that he took before he ran off to go crash the wedding. And this spell, left a mark, like a mystical tattoo of sorts."_

"Okay... what does that mean? Did he hex you?"

" _...I don't know. He claimed in this video he left me that it was a protection spell—but I don't believe him. This is the same guy who left me for dead in a prison world and gave my best friend head trauma-"_

"The best friend I need you to focus on _helping_ right now. Please, Bonnie. I can't—if something happens to her—I can't _live_ without her."

" _I know, I know Elena needs my help, but this mark—I need to know what it does. For all I know it's some kind of ticking time bomb, it's exactly the kind of thing Kai would do. Which is why I cast a locator spell. I'm going after him and I'm going to find out what kind of spell he really cast using my blood. And then I'll be there to help Elena."_

"Not good enough Bon Bon. Can't you just... I don't know, take his word for it? That it is a protection spell, because Elena-"

" _You can't expect me to trust him, not after everything-"_

Damon ran his fingers through his hair in frustration with one hand, a conflicted look on his face. "I know he's done some downright _awful_ things to you Bonnie, and I know just as much as you do that the psycho is not to be trusted but-"

" _You're worried about Elena's safety more than you're worried about mine."_

Damon hesitated. "She's the love of my eternal life Bonnie. Like I said, I can't live without her. But that doesn't mean I don't care for you too and I would _love_ to help you out with your Kai problem as soon as I know Elena is gonna be alright."

" _Damon if Elena's problems are physical and not magic related, I'm not even sure there's anything I can do for her."_

"There _has_ to be."

" _Damon—I... I love Elena. She's my best friend. And I care about you too. But—if I don't put myself first every now and then, if I don't look after myself and spend my life making sacrifices for others... nobody's going to put me first for a change. Nobody. It's my self sacrificing that got me sent to that prison world in the first place."_

" _Bonnie_ -"

" _I'm sorry, Damon. I really am. But I'm going after Kai. And soon as that's dealt with, I'll be on my way over and I'll see if there's anything I can do."_

"Bonnie, don't hang up..." but before Damon could finish his sentence, he heard Bonnie hang up on the other end. Damon gritted his teeth, furious, and torn between the two most important women in his life, his girlfriend Elena, and his best friend, Bonnie. He looked over at the still unconscious Elena, staring at her face for a long moment, his eyes starting to fill up with fresh tears as he did, thinking to himself what would happen if she never woke up again.

 **Elena's Dreamspace, on the Road Outside Mystic Falls...**

Damon was standing on the road with Elena, both of them still in their wedding clothes. Damon took Elena's hands in his hands, trying to force a smile on his face. "Just dance with me, come on," Damon insisted, Elena shaking her head, both of them teary eyed.

"Damon, I might not wake up, and this might be the only chance we have to say goodbye."

Damon shook his head. "No. You're not dying. You're gonna wake up, I'm gonna take the cure, and we're going to live out the life we had planned together. I'm not letting anything get in the way of that."

"I don't think you have a say in the matter. Kai already paid a visit to me, he said magic wouldn't get me out of this mess. Whether I wake up or not now, it's all up to chance."

"No, no, no, no."

Elena put her hands on Damon's face, a reassuring smile on hers. "Damon, listen to me, I know you don't want to say a word of what I have to say next but, if this is the last time we see each other, I want you to know that—that you need to take good care of Stefan. He's the last bit of family you have left, and you're all he has left. And I want you to make sure Bonnie, and Jeremy, and Alaric, and Matt stay safe, and... I want you to know that I love you."

"I won't say goodbye to you Elena."

In that moment, Damon thought back to his mother's funeral, and when a ten year old Stefan told him _"you could've at least said goodbye"_ when he told him that he couldn't think of what to say for his mother's eulogy. "I won't say it."

"Okay. Just promise me, promise me you'll do what I asked you to, just, in case-"

"That would mean accepting your death as a possibility. And I won't do that."

"Damon-"

"Alright. I promise your final wishes will be respected Elena Gilbert."

"... thank you."

 **Mystic Falls Hospital...**

Stefan and Caroline just arrived in Elena's hospital room at Mystic Falls Hospital, Stefan giving the unconscious Elena a look of concern, while Caroline looked worried for both Stefan and Elena. "Where's Damon?" Caroline asked.

"Bonnie tracked Kai," Stefan said with a sigh. "He did something mystical to her, she went to go beat the details out of him, Damon went after her."

Caroline hesitated. "This whole thing with Elena... if she doesn't wake up, if she... are you gonna be okay?"

"Are you?"

"Of course not. It's gonna be hard but, I've survived losing both my mom and dad. And it's not like Elena was my soulmate either."

Stefan considered Caroline's words for a minute. "I don't think Elena necessarily came into my life to be my soulmate. I mean, she was. We loved each other, but she was also the only person I've ever met who actually believed that my brother was worth loving, and she reminded me that I used to believe that about him, too," Stefan replied, bitter sweetly. "And her faith in him, it brought Damon and me back together. And yeah I-I loved her more than I could ever thought I could love somebody else. But I think, in the end, I needed him more than I needed her. Is that why... you feel you need to stay away from me, is it because you think that I haven't moved on?"

"No, Stefan, I-" Caroline sighed. "I'm sure it sounds like I'm making a million excuses but you and I-" Caroline sighed again. "I can't do this right now. I'm sorry."

With that, Caroline left the room to avoid anymore awkwardness, leaving Stefan behind with Elena.

 **Wedding Location...**

Kai was walking around the barn, bits of glass still scattered everywhere, an overwhelmed and somewhat exhausted look on his face. He figured, from what he saw and everything that happened after he crashed the wedding, that he had killed at least ten people in the past twenty four hours or so, most of those people belonging to his own coven. The thought made him feel so conflicted. A part of him felt guilty, disgusted with himself even, those people had families, families who would probably grieve them for the rest of their lives. Those people he killed probably also had their who lives ahead of them, and he snuffed them, for what, vengeance? To prove a point? He just remembered being so... angry at the time. But didn't he have the right to be angry? He was stranded in a 1903 Prison World, and nobody in his coven was planning on coming to his rescue, ever. None of those people he killed today would've shed a tear had he died in their place.

"Why are you still here? Were you trying to lure me to you, so you could have your vengeance? I mean, you're probably more angry with me than anyone else right now," a familiar voice said, a voice Kai instantly recognized as Bonnie. He looked up at her, both happy and afraid to see her again.

"Bonnie."

"Were you expecting someone else?" Bonnie asked, looking at him with a tense expression on her face.

"No, I—I wasn't expecting anyone. Believe me."

"I wish I could. Actually no I don't. Because people who trust you, _always_ get screwed over."

"I know, but, you showing up here, right now... it wasn't planned," Kai insisted, a pleading look on his face, to Bonnie's mild annoyance.

Bonnie raised one hand, creating the same high pitched sound that Kai made with his magic when he crashed Jo and Alaric's wedding, Kai doubling over, holding his head in pain. Then Bonnie extended her left arm out forward, her wrist face up so the newly made mark Kai created using her blood would be visible. "What did you really do to me Kai? I know this mark isn't the result of some protection spell like you said in the video."

"It _is_ ," Kai replied, still holding his head with his hands. "I wanted to protect you from... from the heretics."

"I don't believe you!"

"I'm not lying. Double, triple check it, check it over as many times as you want, in as many different grimoires—I cast a protection spell. Those heretics," Kai started, getting back to his feet, no longer holding his head. "Take it from someone who's spent some quality time with them in a prison world. They've all got a screw or two loose. No way I would trust your life in their hands."

"Why would my _life_ mean _anything_ to you? You're a sociopath, Kai."

"I was. I—I don't know what I am anymore. As I keep trying to tell you, I've _changed_. I wish I was still a sociopath because I feel things now, things like guilt and remorse and... other stuff. I owe it to myself to keep you safe because you were undoubtedly one of the people I've hurt the most."

Bonnie looked at him in disbelief. "For someone who says he's changed... could've had me fooled. Elena's not waking up, because of something _you_ did to her at the wedding. Damon's pretty distraught about it. And from what Damon told me, you hurt more people than just her when you crashed the wedding."

Kai hesitated. "I did. Elena, she has some sort of head injury, she got it when I knocked her off her feet with my magic, she hit her head pretty hard when she hit the ground. The old me slipped through the cracks a little bit, I was still kinda pissed about being left behind in the 1903 Prison World and no one coming to my rescue. I probably wouldn't have been nearly as bitter if I didn't stumble upon a group of vampwitches shortly after you left me that made me into a human blood bag."

"You let them _feed_ on you?!"

"I didn't have a choice. Each of them, got some of my blood in their belly," Kai replied, opening up his jacket, then opening up his white collar shirt underneath, unsnapping all of the buttons, exposing some of his skin to Bonnie, who couldn't help but watch. He opened up his white collar shirt all the way, Bonnie seeing a couple of vampire bite marks on his belly. "I have a few more bite marks on my thighs, they fed on me more times than that but they gave me some of their blood to heal from time to time. All six of them fed from me though. They were never gentle about it either. And they always insisted on feeding straight from the tap."

Bonnie looked at the bite marks for a minute, a stunned look on her face. The whole time he was in the prison world, he was being used as vampire food. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. "So you decided to bring them back into the real world with you?"

"It's complicated. I mean I probably shouldn't have and devised a plan to strand them back in 1903 indefinitely. But I decided against that for reasons _I_ don't even really understand. They're probably going to kill a whole bunch of people now that I've released them back into the world. Well, Oscar might not. He seemed to be the least violent one of the bunch, very easy to get along with compared to the rest of them."

Bonnie looked unamused. "Where are they now?"

"In a building in the warehouse district of Mystic Falls, that's currently cloaked. They're also being kept inside thanks to a boundary spell I cast. I was going to let them out once I severed the link between me and everyone in the Gemini coven so you know, the entire coven wouldn't die when I did. Then I was going to take Lily's blood, kill himself, and become a witchpire just like them. Travel the world and wreak havoc or something."

"And you're not going to do that now?"

Kai shook his head. "I already used the blood I got from Mama Salvatore, saving Liv's boyfriend whose life I may have put in danger when I crashed the wedding. Even if I could get more... whose to say Luke's conscience wouldn't get heightened with my vampirism."

"Always a possibility," Bonnie admitted. "Unless getting aspects of Luke's personality is only a temporary side effect. In which case you'd go back to yourself old self eventually. Which I imagine you will."

Kai shook his head once more. "It doesn't work like that Bonnie. It least I don't think it does. It didn't with my father, may his abusive ass rest in peace."

Bonnie paused. "Elena's still unconscious, she has the cure ruining through her system so vampire blood won't work on her. Is there anything you could do-"

"Not really. I mean, there's a few things I could try, but I doubt any of it will actually work. Magic is tricky like that, but I'm sure you already know."

"You realize if my best friend dies because you hurt her, I don't care whether you've changed or not," Bonnie paused, Kai staring at her nervously. "I _will_ make you pay for it. You thought the Prison World was bad, I will make every second of the rest of your life a living hell."

Suddenly, Damon came into the barn, running at vampire speed, stopping when he was behind Kai, putting the coven leader in a choke hold from behind, to Bonnie's surprise. "Afraid you won't be able to Bon Bon. She doesn't pull through, I'm killing this brat myself," Damon said to Kai, almost whispering in his ear. "But I'm not just going to snap your neck, no that would be too good for you. No, I'm probably going to start by tearing your fingers and your little toes off. Then work my way up to your arms. When I'm done with you, no one will be able to identify your body, not even your twin sister Jo."

"Who would die if I die," Kai muttered. "Leader of the Gemini Coven remember? I die every witch in my coven dies with me."

"I'll find a loophole. I always do."

Kai smirked for a moment. "Do you really think I would allow myself to be killed by Damon Salvatore? Come on, I think I deserve a little better than that," Kai replied, muttering a word in Latin under his breathe, Damon suddenly releasing his grip on Kai, only to be sent flying through the air shortly afterwards, his back hitting the back wall of the barn before he fell to the barn floor, Kai turning around to look at him. "You forget as leader of the Gemini Coven, I'm far more powerful than you."

"You forget he has a Bennett witch on his side," Bonnie added, holding one hand out, telekinetically lifting Kai off his feet and hurling him at the back wall of the barn next to Damon.

Kai laughed a little as he sat upright, Damon quickly getting back on his feet at the same time. "If anyone's going to kill me, it's going to be you Bonnie. I won't settle for anyone else."


	4. Part 4

**Becoming**

 **Part Four**

 _ **Author's Note:** Sorry you all had to wait so long for the next update, but it's finally here._

 **Mystic Falls Hospital...**

Jo, Alaric and Stefan were standing by while Elena laid in her hospital bed, her eyes closed, still unresponsive, Alaric holding hands with Jo, holding her hand in his tightly. Suddenly, Elena gasped for air, her eyes still closed. Stefan rushed over to her bedside, a relieved look on his face. Elena then blinked rapidly. "Damon?" she whispered, the look of relief on Stefan's face slowly fading. "Damon?"

"Damon isn't here right now, he went to go help Bonnie," Stefan replied.

Jo and Stefan helped Elena sit upright, Elena looking more than just a little disoriented. "Why would he go help Bonnie? Is she okay?" Elena asked.

"Kai did something to her, we're not sure what, but she and Damon are handling it."

"Kai... Kai crashed the wedding."

"Yeah, he did," Jo confirmed. "He somehow found his way out of the 1903 Prison World. We don't know if he brought the Heretics back with him or not."

"...Did he kill anyone?"

Jo nodded. "He did. He killed some of our coven, including... including my dad."

"Oh my god, Jo I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault."

"I'm gonna go tell Caroline she's awake," Stefan added, Elena giving him a small nod before he turned around and walked out of the room.

Elena put both hands on her head, to Jo and Alaric's concern. "My god, my head is just... pounding right now. Maybe becoming human again wasn't such a great idea after all, I would've been healed by now," Elena joked, Jo smiling and Alaric chuckling a little.

 **The Wedding Location...**

Both Kai and Damon were now back on their feet, staring one another down, Bonnie watching nervously, waiting to see who was going to attack who next. "You know if I really wanted to kill Elena, I would've done so already. I would've done it at the wedding, would've been really easy too. All I would've had to do was snap my fingers, and ta-da, you're little girlfriend would've been no more. My quarrel was with my coven, more specifically my immediate family—not with any of you."

"I have a hard time trusting a single word that comes out of your mouth. Why would you hone in on your family, it was Bonnie, Elena and myself who left you to die in that Prison World in the first place," Damon replied.

Kai grimaced. "I haven't forgotten that. But you see, you suffer, and Bonnie suffers. The more pain I cause her, the more I hate myself."

Bonnie looked surprised by this response, while Damon sneered. "Why am I not surprised. You have a thing for Bon-Bon don't you?"

"Damon-" Bonnie started, an angry look on her face, only for Kai to cut her off.

"I don't have a thing for anyone! Not that she's not attractive or doesn't have _very_ nice palms. Just Luke's conscience makes me feel— _guilty_ for everything I've done to her. Even after she left me to become Heretic food in a Prison World."

"Why don't I believe you? See, I think you do have a _thing_ for Bonnie. Why else would you have been so willing to send Jeremy back over to the Prison World even when you were, and I quote, 'half dead'. You did it to save her life. Because you like her."

"Damon, what on Earth are you talking about?!" Bonnie jumped in again.

"Go ahead little boy, tell her. Tell her what you and Jeremy did on her birthday."

"That's enough out of you Damon," Kai said angrily, putting one hand out forward, Damon falling to his knees, holding his head with both hands, moaning in pain. "I don't have to tell _anyone anything_."

Bonnie stared at Kai for a moment in disbelief, a look of surprise and horror on her face. "What is he talking about Kai?"

"He's lying," Kai replied. "What he said—it didn't happen."

"And once again, I don't believe you. Tell me what really happened before I have to beat it out of you. And let Damon go before I have to beat you for that too."

Kai hesitated for a moment before making a fist, Damon's neck suddenly snapping, his body falling over onto the floor, to Bonnie's concern. "Damon-"

"Relax, a snapped neck is hardly fatal for a vampire. He'll be just fine. Granted when he wakes up he'll have a very stiff neck I imagine."

Bonnie turned back to look at Kai, an impatient look on her face. "No more distractions, no more shutting people up, no more lies. I wanna know what you did."

"Well... I could tell you. But it seems rather pointless when I can just show you," Kai stated, walking closer to Bonnie, Bonnie not moving away. Hesitantly, Kai placed his hands on Bonnie's cheeks and closed his eyes, Bonnie waiting to see where he was going with this, also deeply uncomfortable with the fact that she was letting Kai Parker, of all people, touch her. Kai then began to chant in a foreign language, casting a spell.

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind came in and the scenery around them was slowly starting to change. Before she knew it, Bonnie found herself in the kitchen of the Salvatore Boarding House, Kai still chanting. Then Kai stopped, taking his hands off of Bonnie's cheeks and taking a few steps back. He then walked over to Bonnie's side, glancing over at his past self and a past version of Jeremy, who was helping the wounded and wheezing Past Kai into the kitchen. "What the hell is going on?" Bonnie asked.

"This is the past. We're inside my memories Bonnie. Everything you see here, actually happened."

The Past Kai collapsed on to the floor, barely sitting upright, bleeding heavily. "Send me back," Jeremy insisted, Past Kai only wheezing in response. "Please."

Past Kai looked at Jeremy in disbelief. "Jeremy, look at me. I'm half dead."

"I need to stop Bonnie."

Bonnie stared at the past versions of Jeremy and Kai, still shocked by the events that were unfolding before her eyes. "Ok. Ok," Past Kai replied, giving Jeremy a nod. Past Kai took the half melted ascendant out and held it up to Jeremy, closing his eyes and beginning to chant. _"_ _Phesmatos tribum invocio caveum, miscero mundio."_

Present day Kai watched the events unfolding sadly, reminding himself that Bonnie nearly killed herself that day because of what he'd done. He wanted so badly to make up for the hell he put her through, he still did. But did he love her? No, someone like him wasn't capable of that. Or at least he didn't think he was able to have genuine feelings for another human being, not the kind of feelings Damon was implying. Or could he? He wouldn't have gone through so much trouble for just anyone.

"Take me back," Bonnie said firmly, turning to look at the present day Kai, a conflicted look on her face. "Take me back to the real world. Now."

"As you wish," Kai replied, forcing a smile on his face and snapping his fingers. In a matter of seconds, Bonnie and Kai were back in the real world, at the wedding location, Damon's body still lying on the ground, his neck still broken. Just then, his cellphone began to ring.

Quickly, Bonnie made her way over to Damon and searched his body for his cellphone, finding it and checking it. Alaric was calling Damon's phone. Bonnie answered the call and put the phone up to her ear to listen, still kneeling by Damon's body. "Hello? Alaric?"

" _Hey, Bonnie. What happened to Damon?"_

"He's... incapacitated at the moment. He'll be alright, just had his neck snapped. Is everything alright with you?"

" _Elena woke up. Looks like she's gonna be just fine. She's asking for you and Damon."_

A relieved look washed over Bonnie's face. "Oh, oh thank god. I'll get there as soon as I can, tell her Damon and I are on our way."

" _Will do."_

Bonnie heard Alaric hang up on the other end, so she pulled her phone away from her ear and hung up on her end. She then turned back to look at Kai, only to find that he was already gone, without saying so much as a goodbye. He'd cast another one of his cloaking spells, which the Gemini Coven happened to be known for. Bonnie let out a sigh, placing Damon's phone on the ground next to him, then buried her face in her hands.

 **Mystic Falls Hospital...**

Bonnie and Caroline were standing by Elena's bedside, Elena sitting upright in her bed, a tired and exhausted look on her face, Damon, Stefan, Alaric and Jo all waiting outside, giving the girls time alone to spend together. "I just don't know what we would've done if you hadn't woke up. You are never allowed to scare us like that again," Caroline warned, Bonnie and Elena giggling.

"I'll try not to get my head bashed in again by a... psycho leader of a witch coven," Elena replied.

"Good."

"Speaking of the psycho that bashed my head in, what are we going to do about Kai?" Elena asked, looking over to Bonnie, Caroline looking over to Bonnie as well.

"...I don't know. We can't very well just kill him seeing as he's mystically connected to every witch in his coven, and killing him would mean killing them as well."

"There's gotta be a way to sever that connection," Caroline added.

"I don't think there is. But if there is, it would probably be very time consuming."

"It would be worth it," Elena suggested.

"Maybe it would. But I say we shouldn't do it until it absolutely comes to it," Bonnie insisted, to Elena and Caroline's mild surprise. "I think he's gone back to Portland anyways. He probably won't be a problem for us in the near future."

"What about the Heretics?" Caroline asked.

"I'm not sure what's going on with them," Bonnie admitted. "Kai said he had them mystically sealed away in a cloaked building somewhere in the warehouse district outside of Mystic Falls. But in theory Kai could just release them at any time. I just don't think he will anytime soon."

"Why is that? And why are we giving Kai the benefit of the doubt again?"

Bonnie paused. "The Heretics fed on him in the Prison World, made him there little bitch. I don't think there's any love lost there. And I'm starting to accept the fact that... I can't believe I'm saying this, Kai isn't the same sociopath who drove me to the point of wanting to end my own life. He's changed."

"Changed?! He just murdered his own father and nearly killed Elena-"

"And Klaus killed his own mother, not to mention Aunt Jenna and Carol Lockwood. And Damon killed Aaron Whitmore and tried to kill Jeremy twice," Bonnie interrupted, Caroline and Elena realizing what Bonnie just said was one hundred percent the truth. "We've come to see the good in a lot of monsters over the years. And maybe I do think there's a sliver of good in Kai now, even though that sliver of good comes from that Merge with Luke. Otherwise he'd still be a total sociopath. So maybe I'm going just a little bit easier on him because of that. But make no mistake, if he does end up hurting someone I care about again, whether he means to or not, or whether he feels guilty about it or not... I will find a way to end him. I promise."

"I believe you Bonnie, and I get it," Elena replied, nodding in understanding, Caroline still a little taken aback, thinking back to when she first started to see the good in Klaus, in spite of herself, and how much trouble, pain and heartbreak it caused her.

 **Elsewhere in Mystic Falls Hospital...**

Alaric, Jo, Damon and Stefan were joined by a recently arrived Jeremy, who greeted Alaric with a hug. "Good to see you Jeremy," Alaric said with a smile on his face.

Jeremy took a few steps back, breaking away from the hug. "I—I tried to be here sooner. For the wedding," Jeremy replied, looking apologetically at Alaric, then over at Jo.

"I'm actually glad you weren't."

" _Three_ cancelled flights," Jeremy explained. "I could've _walked_ here faster," he continued, Alaric and Jo laughing a little. "I heard about your dad Jo. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Jo said, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she thought about her recently deceased father, Alaric taking her hand in his, Jo squeezing it.

"Going to go in to see your sister before you take off again?" Damon asked.

"I was planning on it. How's she uh—how's she doing?"

"Good. She's awake now and expected to make a full recovery. Still wanna kill Kai Parker though for putting her life at risk in the first place."

"Same, Bonnie ever gives me the greenlight, I'm bashing his head in," Jeremy replied bitterly.

 **Elena's Hospital Room...**

Jeremy joined Elena in her room at the hospital, Caroline and Bonnie walking out to give them some time alone together as siblings. Jeremy sat down on the bed next to Elena, a half hearted smile on his face. The two then hugged each other tightly. "I wasn't even gone for that long and you already nearly got yourself killed," Jeremy joked, pulling out of the hug. "But then you did choose to stay in Mystic Falls, even after becoming human again."

"Where else would I go?" Elena asked.

"Somewhere where the mortality rate for humans isn't so high?"

"What can I say, I like living life on the edge."

Elena and Jeremy laughed a little. "So that's just it, you become human again and you don't plan on living your life any differently?" Jeremy asked.

Elena hesitated. "Well not exactly. Damon and I have made plans to both lead more human lives together... after he drinks the cure from my blood and becomes human with me."

Jeremy stared at Elena for a moment in disbelief. "You're kidding me right? Damon Salvatore, human? How long would it be before the guy died of alcohol poisoning or, reckless driving, or pissing off the wrong guy-"

"All valid concerns. But he claims he's thought it all through. And this is what he wants. To live a normal life with me."

"Wow, I can't even picture Damon living a—a suburban life."

"Neither can I. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that front."

"I guess so."

"Speaking of the future, what's the deal with you and Bonnie these days?"

This time, Jeremy hesitated. "I don't know. I've only spoken to her a couple of times since she's gotten back from the Prison World. It's uh, it's complicated."

"I know what that's like."

Jeremy laughed. "Yeah, I thought you would."

 **Outside of Elena's Hospital Room...**

Jeremy met up with Bonnie outside of Elena's hospital room, an awkward expression on his face. Bonnie reached her arms out for a hug, and quickly Jeremy embraced her, holding her tightly for a moment, before Bonnie took her arms away and took a step back. "Are you alright?" Jeremy asked, now looking more concerned than awkward.

"As alright as I can be," Bonnie replied. "All things considered."

"Yeah. So, Damon mentioned to me that Kai did something to you. What did he-"

Bonnie extended out one arm and turned it over to make her wrist visible to Jeremy, showing him the marking that came from Kai's protection spell. "He took some of my blood and used it to make a protection spell. It's kind of like a... Mark of Cain of sorts. So now if someone ever kills me, they die with me."

"Can't say I would expect someone like him to do... something like that."

"I didn't either. But apparently he also once helped you save my life in the Prison World. I wouldn't have expected him to do something like that either."

Jeremy paused. "I wasn't really going to give him much of a choice in the matter. He was wounded at the time thanks to Liv, he wouldn't have been that hard to overpower."

"Still... he did it."

"Yeah, he did."

Bonnie forced a smile on her face. "Thank you for saving my life Jeremy. I mean it."

Jeremy smiled back at her. "You're welcome. You would've done the same for me. There was no way I was going to give up on you, not if there was anything that could be done."

"I know. So um... what are you doing these days?"

"Fulfilling my mystical destiny... hunting murderous vampires," Jeremy replied quietly. "Don't tell Elena though, she still thinks I'm enrolled in art school."

" _You're hunting vampires_?"

"Yep. Saving the human population one vampire at a time."

"Good for you. ...Slain many vampires yet?"

Jeremy shook his head. "Not really. The odd one here and there. I was actually wondering... if you weren't doing anything here, if you wanted to... help me. Hunt vampires."

Bonnie smiled. "It's tempting but... I think I'll pass on that offer."

"Well, it's always open, if you change your mind."

"Good to know. About what I said on the phone that one time... I meant every word of it. That Prison World really did a number on me."

"I can only imagine. And the new you... doesn't think I fit into her life anymore."

Bonnie shook her head. "I still—we'll always be friends won't we?"

Jeremy nodded. "I hope so."

"Because you mean so much to me. And I do still love you. I do. But right now... after everything... I can't see how we would work right now."

Jeremy gave Bonnie a look of understanding. "I get it. Guess I'll be on my way then. Back to monster hunting."

"Would you say no to one for the road?"

Bonnie then placed her hands on Jeremy's face, leaned in, and kissed him deeply, Jeremy kissing her back, knowing this was the end of what they once had.

 **The Warehouse District...**

Enzo stepped out of his car and walked towards Lily, who was still searching desperately for her vampire-siphoner companions. As soon as her eyes met Enzo, she looked both relieved and embarrassed. "Lorenzo. You came back. You must think me such a monster."

"We're all monsters in some way, I suppose."

Lily nodded slowly. "My life before my friends was misery, even as a mother, a-a wife. I never felt whole. But then, I found these people, and, uh, I felt a part of something. I actually felt whole while I knew them. Can you understand that just a little?"

"I can, because I've been searching for that my whole life."

Enzo looked away for a moment, then seemed both shocked and curious when he spotted something on the horizon. "What is it?" Lily asked, with a confused expression on her face.

"That building," Enzo replied. "It wasn't there last night."

Enzo walked toward the building, Lily following him. He eventually made his way to the building and opened the door, he and Lily walking inside. Suddenly, Lily saw something and gasped in shock. "Valerie? Nora? Mary Louise?"

After a moment, a woman in early 20th century clothing walked toward them. When she saw Lily, she began to walk even faster. Then, more people appeared behind them, some women, some men, Lily excited, happy, and relieved. "Lorenzo... it's our family!"

Lily walked over toward the woman leading the group, who she now recognized as Valerie, and hugged her tightly, tears rolling down Lily's cheeks.


	5. Part 5

**Becoming**

 **Part Five**

 **Author's Note:** _Sorry for the wait again. I had most of it done Tuesday... and then I got sick. So sick that it was difficult to get out of bed for a few days. But it's here now so enjoy. P.S., I'm just as annoyed as anybody else by the most recent episode of TVD Season 7. No idea what the writers are thinking these days._

 **Tyler's Bedroom...**

Liv woke up in Tyler's bed, a still sleeping Tyler spooning her. Liv smiled widely, before yesterday, she never thought she and Tyler would ever get back together. In fact, she'd considered skipping Jo's wedding just to avoid him because she had a feeling he'd be there, but went anyways since she hated the thought of missing her sister's wedding, even if she was a sister she hardly knew. Liv gently lifted Tyler's arm off of her and turned around in the bed so she could face Tyler. "Morning Lockwood," Liv said, waiting for him to wake up.

Tyler's eyes opened. "Morning Liv," he replied, letting out a yawn as he did, rolling on to his back and stretching a little, to Liv's amusement.

"How you feeling?" Liv asked.

"Good, all things considered. I survived having a piece of glass shoved through my belly without having to activate the curse."

A sudden look of annoyance came over Liv's face as she was reminded by the fact that Kai saved Tyler's life last night. "Yeah, thanks to my psychotic older brother."

"Thank you for saving my life. You didn't have to take the blood from him. And now that you have-"

"He probably thinks I owe him one. Not that it matters. I'm not returning to my coven. Whether he helped me save your life or not, he still killed my siblings... my father. As long as Kai's the leader, I'm staying as far away as I can, legacy of the Parker family be damned."

"I understand. And don't worry, if anybody tries to force you back into that coven, they're gonna have to go through me first."

Liv's smile returned. "My hero," she said, placing a kiss on Tyler's lips.

"So... where do we go from here?"

Liv hesitated. "I don't know. I haven't really given it much thought yet. Have—Have you?"

"Well, we're back together aren't we?"

"I was hoping we were," Liv admitted.

"And I know we've only been back together as of—last night, but I was hoping, if you wanted to, if you think you're ready, you could... move in with me? Here?"

Liv reacted with a look of shock and surprise. "You want me to—move in with you?"

"I do. And I know it might sound too clingy, or too soon, or-"

"Yes," Liv interrupted, grinning.

Tyler looked at her for a moment, confused. "Yes what?"

"Yes, I'll move in with you."

"Really?"

Liv nodded. "I'd be happy to."

This time, Tyler kissed Liv, placing his hands on her face. She then moved on top of him, the blankets still on them, the two continuing to kiss, losing themselves in one another.

 **Elena's Hospital Room...**

Elena was laying in her hospital bed, still recovering from her injuries, Damon sitting on her bed, keeping her company. He held one of his hands and smiled at her as he stared longingly into her eyes, Elena staring into his eyes as well, smiling all the same. "So you really don't remember any dreams you had while you were out?" Damon asked.

"No, not really. I vaguely remember seeing you. I also vaguely remember seeing Kai."

"He mentioned to me that he cast some sort of spell that let him get inside your head," Damon replied. "I'm glad he didn't hurt you anymore than he already did."

"I was never his target. His coven was. I think it's always been about the coven for him. His whole life has revolved around that damn coven and it's his coven that hurt him the most."

"I don't think he's just focusing on his coven anymore," Damon suggested, a conflicted look on his face. "I think he also has a thing for a certain Bennett witch."

Elena gave him a surprised look. "You think Kai has a crush for Bonnie? Does someone like Kai even get... feelings for another person like that?"

"Before the merge, I don't think he could. But post-Merge... there's not a doubt in my mind right now that he likes Bonnie. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not, or how he's going to take it when he finds out Bonnie doesn't feel the same."

"Can't say I saw this coming. Kinda makes me see him differently. Also puts a different spin on why he helped Jeremy stop her from killing herself in the Prison World."

"Yeah, no kidding. I don't think I'm going to take the cure and live out a human life with you just yet."

"What do you mean?" Elena asked.

"Bonnie said that Kai brought the Heretics back with him from the 1903 Prison World. Vampire-witch hybrids, who have undying loyalty for my diabolical, manipulative mother. I have to be a vampire if I'm going to go up against them. And then, once every last one of them is dead with their heads mounted on pikes.. we can go live out our happy human lives together, after I drink the cure from your bloodstream."

"You talk like killing a whole bunch of vampwitches is gonna be easy."

"Not like they'll be any worse than any enemy we've faced before."

"If you say so-"

"I know so," Damon assured her.

Elena stared at Damon for a moment. "One of these days your cockiness is going to go get you killed."

"Oh probably."

"But promise me that if for some reason I do die again," Damon started. "You won't have somebody compel away all of your good memories of me. Or take some weird witchy drugs to cope."

Elena laughed. "I promise I won't. I'd never wanna forget the Damon I know now again."

"That's reassuring," Damon replied, leaning in for a kiss.

 **Caroline's House...**

Caroline walked down some stairs in her home, going to answer the door after she heard someone knocking. When she finally made her way to the door and opened it, she found Stefan standing before her. Both of them paused, smiling at one another awkwardly for a moment.

"Hey," Stefan said.

"Hey."

"Can I come in?"

Caroline hesitated. "Uh—Sure. Come in, make yourself at home."

She stepped aside and let Stefan into her home, then led him into the living room, where she sat down on a couch, Stefan sitting down to next her. Stefan turned to look at her, Caroline reluctant to look back at him. "Yesterday, you told me you made a list of all the ways that loving me has ruined your life, and I get it. I haven't exactly made it easy on you," he admitted, Caroline only feeling more awkward. "But I made a list too, of all the ways that loving you has changed mine."

Caroline finally turned to look at Stefan, a confused look on her face, not knowing where he was going with this. "You were by my side when I needed a friend. You made me laugh. You made me dance. You told me that I would find love again... And, I understand if you need time to heal, and to live your life without me. And, I understand if I have to wait for you, and I will, I'll wait. And when you're ready for me, I will be ready for you."

Stefan leaned in and slowly and softly, kissed Caroline on the cheek.

 **Mystic Falls Hospital...**

Jo stared at the lifeless body of her father, laying on a slab in a morgue, with a devastated look on her face, Alaric by his side, his arm wrapped around her. Within a few minutes, Liv and Tyler joined them, Jo breaking away from Alaric to hug Liv as Liv walked toward her, the two of them embracing each other, crying a little as they did, even though they both had a rocky relationship with him to say the least. Secretly, Jo didn't resent Kai all that much for killing their father. She knew in the back of her mind that it would happen if Kai ever got out of that Prison World. She also knew the only reason Kai hadn't killed him when he killed four of their siblings is because he was the current leader of their coven, and he would end up taking himself down with him. But since Kai was currently the leader of the Gemini Coven, that wasn't a problem for him any longer. Still, he was her father and the only father she'll ever know and in her own way, she did love him, even if he never really loved her. She just now hoped that she wouldn't make the same mistakes he did with his kids as she might with hers.

 **Dorm Room, Whitmore College...**

Bonnie was in her dorm room at Whitmore College, laying in her bed, when her cellphone went off, receiving an incoming call. Letting out a sigh, Bonnie reached for her cellphone and checked to see who was calling. The Caller ID said Unknown caller, to Bonnie's confusion and concern. Reluctantly, Bonnie answered the call, placing the phone up to her ear. "Hello?" she started with.

" _Bonnie! How are you?_ " a voice on the other end answered eagerly, Bonnie recognizing the voice on the other end as Kai's.

"How did you get my number Kai? I know for a fact I didn't give it to you."

" _It's not important right now. Look, I know you don't wanna ever see me, or hear from me again, but what I have to say next is important. I think the Heretics got out of that building I was holding them in with my magic. Kind of foolish to think that magic would hold them, considering they're half siphoners. Never would've worked on me._ "

"Of course they got out," Bonnie sighed again. "Do you know where they are?"

"Not exactly. Not that it matters, we'll just have to follow the trail of bodies they'll leave in their wake."

"You sound so concerned about that," Bonnie replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Only sort of. What I am concerned about is them going after my coven or going after your friends, which they're bound to get around to."

"So what are you getting at Kai?"

" _I'm proposing a temporary alliance. Help me send them back to the 1903 Prison World where they belong._ "

Bonnie hesitated. " _You know you won't be able to do it without me._ "

"...Alright. I'll work with you for the sake of getting rid of the Heretics. But once we're done and the Heretics are sent back to the hell they came from, you have to promise to leave me alone, walk out of my life for good."

"... _Fine. I will,_ " Kai replied, Bonnie sensing that the request had hurt him, making her feel just a little bit guilty. She didn't know why she was suddenly feeling the slightest bit of compassion for the man who practically gave her PTSD, the man who stabbed her and left her to die in a Prison World designed for him. And yet, here she was, starting to see him as someone other than the man who victimized her, no, she was starting to see him as a different person. Someone who was capable of feeling guilt and remorse when he wronged someone.

 **Four Years Later, Bonnie's House...**

Bonnie was standing in the kitchen of her home, washing dishes, a troubled look on her face. Suddenly, Kai came up from behind her, putting his arms around her, hugging her from behind, and Bonnie couldn't help but smile a little. "It's gonna be okay Bonnie," Kai said to Bonnie in a comforting tone. "I promise. You always manage to overcome everything life throws at you."

Bonnie put the dish down she was washing, turned her head back and let Kai lean in and kiss her, Bonnie kissing him back. The moment was then interrupted by the sound of someone knocking at the door, to Kai's mild annoyance. He took his hands off of Bonnie, and Bonnie made her way out of the kitchen and over to the front door, Kai following. Reluctantly, Bonnie opened the door, finding Damon standing there on the front porch, a grim look on his face. Bonnie sighed at the sight of Damon, while Kai tensed up, now standing behind Bonnie, eyeing Damon cautiously.

"What is it now Damon?" Bonnie asked, exasperated.

"'Fraid things have gone from bad to worse Bon-Bon," Damon replied.

"What happened?" Kai asked, folding his arms, joining in on the conversation, Damon sneering at him.

"The Heretics happened. They managed to get a hold of those stones of yours. I imagine they now have enough power to end the world if they felt so inclined."

Bonnie's eyes widened. "What?!"

Kai looked both furious and in disbelief. "How could you let something like that happen, Damon?!"

Damon grimaced. "It's a rather long story my pork rind munching friend. One I'll be happy to tell you both on the way back to Mystic Falls, where unfortunately you're both needed, whether you like it or not."


	6. Season 7 Prologue

**Becoming**

 **Season 7 Prologue  
**

 **Author's Note:** _So this chapter is like a Prologue of sorts to my Season 7. I know it's short but hopefully you all still enjoy it since it kinda gives further insight into Kai's character and the history of the Parker family/Gemini Coven. The next chapter, whenever I get around to posting it, will be the first chapter of 7x01 AU. I considered posting that as a separate story, but I figured I could just slightly change the description to this story and get away with making it all part of one big story, just with Bonnie as the female lead character and all of the Parker family, including Kai, playing pivotal roles in the story and acting as main characters. By the way, just so there's no confusion, in this story's continuity, Liv went on the run from Kai with her father after breaking up with Tyler in 6x13, but she did it reluctantly and didn't really grow to like him anymore than she already did.  
_

 **Portland, Oregon...**

Jo and Liv were in their father's bedroom of their family home in Portland, sorting through their father's belongings. Both Jo and Liv were packing various items and objects into boxes, Jo looking crestfallen, while Liv looked more blank, as if she was trying to suppress any emotion she was feeling at the moment. Suddenly, Alaric appeared in the doorframe of the room, knocking on the open door. Both Jo and Liv turned back to look at him.

Jo looked over to Liv for a moment, Liv nodding. Jo then looked back over at Alaric. "You can come in," she said, giving him permission, Alaric entering into the room, taking a look around.

"We know it's a bit of a mess in here," Liv admitted.

"It's not that bad," Alaric replied. "Not what I expected though either, for a former leader of a witch coven and a single father of eight."

"Yeah, probably didn't expect as many journals or sketchbooks," Jo added, Alaric walking over and getting down on his knees next to her. "He actually didn't care much for drawing from what I understand until after he merged with his twin brother and became the leader of our coven."

"So his twin brother was an artist?" Alaric asked.

"Sort of."

"He didn't draw as much though towards the end," Liv interrupted, Alaric and Jo looking over to her. "After Kai merged with Luke... he changed a lot. I think the effects of the merge with his twin brother started to fade now that he was no longer the leader of our coven. Makes me wonder if the same thing won't happen to Kai and he won't go back to his psychotic ways once one of your kids takes over the coven."

"None of our children, regardless of how many we have, is going to participate in that barbaric ritual," Jo stated.

"The survival of our coven depends on it," Liv said blankly.

"I'm not even sure our children would have magic since I gave mine up to Kai," Jo argued.

"If memory serves right those twins were conceived before you gave up your magic."

Jo hesitated while a worried look washed over Alaric's face, knowing there was some truth to what Liv was saying. But he couldn't bear the thought of either of his future children dying because of a barbaric ritual. "Okay, so it's possible my kids will have magic and be witches just like we are. They're still not doing the merge under _any_ circumstances," Jo said firmly. "We'll... find some way around it."

"Whatever you say," Liv replied with a deep and heavy sigh.

Just then, Liv found an old camcorder under her father's bed, a sticky note attached to it. On the sticky note it read, "Please watch". "Hey Jo," Liv said.

Jo and Alaric looked back over to Liv. "What is it?" Jo asked.

Liv stood up and sat down on the side of her father's bed, Jo and Alaric walking over and sitting down next to Liv as she pulled off the sticky note and turned on the camcorder. The image of their dead father, Joshua Parker appeared on screen, sitting down in a chair, staring at the camera. _"Olivia, Josette... if you're watching this it means I'm dead right now. I hope you're not shedding too many tears over me, can't imagine you would seeing as how I wasn't exactly father of the year. But you had to understand that the coven came before everything else for me, I wouldn't have made a very good leader if I put anything else before our coven. Now that that's said, there's something more I want you to know, something that I'm sure will come as a shock to hear. Your mother... Selina Parker..." Joshua paused, Jo and Liv watching the screen very intently. "She's alive. I know you thought she died back in the October of 1996, but that's only what she wanted you to believe. Last I checked she was going by an alias, Susan McCullough, still working at a hospital somewhere, I don't know the name of it. But I thought you deserved to know in the event of my death."_

"Oh my god," Jo said quietly, while Liv stared at the screen, shocked to hear those words coming from her dad's mouth. "She's alive."

"She can't be. Our mother _is dead_ ," Liv insisted.

"Didn't you hear dad, she faked her death."

"That's impossible. Mom's dead, I'm certain of it."

"Olivia-"

"She's _dead_. And even if she isn't... I don't wanna see her. And you shouldn't either, not after she just... _abandoned_ us."

Liv dropped the camcorder to the floor and stormed out of the room, Jo chasing after her. Alaric stared down at the camcorder with a conflicted look on his face.

 **Portland, Oregon, 1977...**

A six year old Kai was standing just outside of his parents' bedroom, in his pajamas, listening in on a conversation his parents were having. "It just... I know that it happens from time to time in your coven but, I never thought it would be... one of our own," his mother said in a somewhat hushed tone.

"I know. Last siphoner we had in the family, was born over a hundred years ago. I didn't think we'd have to worry-" Joshua started, but Selina cut him off.

"Well clearly we do have to worry seeing as how Malachai is-"

"I know, you don't have to say it-"

"He's a freak, Joshua. An abomination. A crime against nature."

Kai's heart sank deep within his chest. He couldn't believe the words coming out of his own mother's mouth. His own mother thought he was a freak. "I know, Selina. It's alright."

"It's not alright. And one day he could end up being the leader of our coven, your successor. A siphoner. Except then he would be able to have a constant source of magic. Just... I can't even fathom it."

"You won't have to worry about that. Malachai will never participate in the Merge, I'll make sure of it."

"But only twins can do the Merge, and Josette and Malachai are the only twins we have-"

"We'll just keep having more children until we have another set of twins."

"And what if we never have another set of twins?"

"We'll think of something," Joshua said, trying to assure his wife. "I won't let a siphoner become the leader of this coven under _any_ circumstances. I promise."

Kai shook his head, upset about what he just overheard his parents say. He slowly walked back to his own bedroom, which he shared with Jo, trying to avoid making any loud sounds. He didn't fully understand everything his parents said, but what he did know was that he would become leader of their coven someday, whether his parents wanted him to or not.

 _Author's Note: One last thing, the idea for Jo and Liv to go through their father's belongings and discover proof that their mother was still alive came from MarkMcG9718_


	7. Update

An Update on Things

I am going to be coming back to this story to write my version of Season 7 as I said I would. I just wouldn't expect the next chapter to come out in the near future, since I have Final Exams coming up, and studying's taking up a lot of my time these days. I'm also writing an Elijah/Katherine story that's set after the latest chapter of this story right now and after the last chapter of my Originals Season 2 AU, but that's going to be only between 5-6 chapters long at the most. Once that's done, and Finals are done, there's going to be a lot of updates for this story. I already have a lot of ideas laid out. Expect a somewhat different take on the Heretics (Most of them will remain the same, like Valerie, but some are going to be a little tweaked, like Malcolm and Beau, since I have issues with how both of them have been portrayed, they made Malcolm seem so minor... and Beau, is just kinda there and acts as a blindly loyal servant to Lily).

If anyone has any ideas they'd like to submit/suggest to me, I'm always open for the most part, and I do give credit.

Here's the main characters for Season 7 (Elena and Matt have been reduced to secondary characters, you'll see the reason why later on):

Main Cast  
Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett  
Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore  
Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore  
Candice King as Caroline Forbes  
Matt Davis as Alaric Saltzman  
Michael Malarkey as Enzo  
Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood  
Penelope Mitchell as Liv Parker  
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Jo Laughlin  
And Chris Wood as Malachai "Kai" Parker


	8. The Heretics, Part One

**The Vampire Diaries: Alternate Season 7**

 **Episode 1: The Heretics**

 **Part One**

 **August 8th, 2017, Somewhere on the Road...**

Damon sat in the driver's seat of his car, while Bonnie rode shotgun, Kai sitting awkwardly in one of the back seats. The trio were on their way back to Mystic Falls, though Bonnie and Kai weren't the least bit happy about it. Truth be told they were hoping to never step foot in the small town again for as long as they lived. "So are you going to tell us now how the Heretics got their hands on both Stones of Osiris?" Kai asked Damon using a somewhat annoyed tone.

"Well long story made short, we made the mistake of hiding both stones in the Lockwood Manor, Beau found out, Beau informed the other Heretics, and Lily—and then the Heretics dropped by the Manor, Stefan, Liv, Tyler and I tried to stop them, and they got past all of us. Stefan and I got our necks snapped, and when we woke up, the stones, and Liv and Tyler were gone."

Kai and Bonnie's eyes widened. "Wait, they took Liv?! They have my sister?!"

"Didn't realize you actually cared that much about her," Damon replied callously.

"She's _my_ sister Damon."

"Relax, as far as we know both her and Tyler Lockwood are still breathing, they're just... probably held up somewhere in the Salvatore Boarding House. Still have no idea what the Heretics want with them. But rest assured, we will get them back, in the likely scenario that they're still alive that is. And if they aren't... well that's unfortunate. But then if we do get the stones back, we can always, you know... use them to bring them back."

"Resurrecting someone with the Stones of Osiris has consequences, you know that, and I—I don't want Liv to be subjected to that," Kai stated. "She really doesn't deserve it."

"Do they have anyone else?" Bonnie asked worriedly.

Damon shook his head, continuing to drive. "Nope," he replied, popping the 'p'. "Elena, Caroline, Enzo, Ric, Jo, Jo and Ric's girls, they're all fine. Worried sick about Tyler and Liv, and the fact that our mortal enemies are now holding them hostage and are in possession of some of the most powerful magical objects known to man, but fine."

Bonnie nodded her head slowly. "Good to know."

"Still can't believe you put both of the stones in the same place," Kai complained. "I mean, I knew you weren't exactly a nobel prize winning physicist, but I didn't think you were quite that stupid."

"We _all_ make _mistakes_ ," Damon countered bitterly.

"Yes but no mistake I've ever made has put the entire world in jeopardy."

"He does have a point you know," Bonnie argued, Damon sneering at her. Bonnie then looked back at Kai, Kai giving Bonnie a half worried look, Bonnie reaching out to him with one hand, Kai taking her hand in his, holding it. Kai's worried look slowly melted into a more calm, almost happy one.

 **August 8th, 2013, The Salvatore Boarding House, Damon's Bedroom...**

Elena was sitting upright in Damon's bed, by herself, a pen in one hand, writing in her diary, a tired look on her face.

" _Dear Diary,_

 _It's been about six months since Alaric and Jo almost got married, only to have their wedding interrupted by Kai, who, as fate would have it, didn't stay in the 1903 Prison World for as long as we thought he would. He not only managed to break himself out of the Prison World, but he also brought back six vampire/witch hybrids with him, known as the Heretics. The Heretics—and Kai, have been living in our little town ever since. At first we wanted to send them back to the Prison World—the Heretics, not Kai... well Damon wanted to send Kai back to the Prison World but Bonnie objected. She was fairly confident Kai would just bust his way out again and all we would do is upset him and upsetting the recovering psychopath who is also the all powerful leader of an entire witch coven... probably not good idea. But we ended up meeting with Lily and the Heretics, and, in an unexpected turn of events, we ended up making a deal with them. If they promised not to kill anyone, we would promise to leave them be, and let them live in our town. Kai and the rest of us are waiting for one of the Heretics to slip up any day now, but so far, they haven't... not that I'm complaining._

 _On a mostly unrelated note, Damon and I are still together, and we're happy, at least, I think we are... but Damon keeps putting off taking the cure. He's convinced that the moment he takes the cure, the Heretics will go off the rails and he won't be able to help put them down. Frankly, I think that's an excuse. I think Damon's putting off taking the cure because, whether he's willing to admit it or not, he likes being a vampire more than he ever did a human. He actually enjoys life as a vampire, and... I don't know, maybe if he took the cure he wouldn't enjoy life so much. I think as a human he would be truly miserable. But I guess this is one of those things where we're just going to have to wait and see. If he ever is ready to take the cure, and is pretty insistent on it... I won't stop him. I just hope he won't come to the conclusion later that he made a huge mistake and wind up resenting me for it._

 _Oh, in other news, Matt will officially be Deputy Donovan next week when he graduates. He seems really happy about it. Caroline and Stefan are... still being kinda awkward with each other. Stefan still wants more from her and Caroline... I don't know what Caroline wants with him right now. Tyler and Liv are happily living together in Lockwood Manor, they're going to be going back to Whitmore together in September. And Jo and Alaric, are currently living away from Mystic Falls in Boston, Massachusetts, and have been ever since their big wedding disaster. I think they have plans to try and get married again, but they probably won't try until after the babies are born. Which should be somewhere around two months from now. I think they're going to make great parents._

With that, Elena put her pen down and stared at her diary for a minute, mentally re-reading the entry to herself and frowning a little as she did. Right now, more than ever, she was missing a time in her life when things were more... simpler.

 **Mystic Falls Town Square...**

Caroline was sitting down on a bench in the town square, looking over at the placard on the bench upon which she was sitting that read "In Loving Memory of Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes". Caroline looked mournful as she ran her fingers over it. Caroline then let out a small sigh.

"Hey," a voice from behind her said, a voice that Caroline recognized as Stefan's. She jumped a little as she heard his voice, startled. She turned around to look at him, forcing a smile on her face as she did.

"Stefan! What are you doing here?"

"Matt reported some blood bags missing from the hospital, so I thought I'd check it out."

"Oh. Do you think it's your mom?"

"More than likely," Stefan admitted. "Either that or we have a new vampire in town."

The pair were silent for a moment, Caroline hesitating before speaking again. "So, um... how's... how are things?"

"Good," Stefan replied. He then walked over and sat down on the bench next to Caroline. "I made this, uh, a thing, didn't I?"

Caroline looked at Stefan curiously. "You made what a thing?"

"I told you how I felt, after I made it seem like I didn't feel anything, and now, now it's—it's weird."

Caroline shook her head. "What? No, no it's not weird Stefan..."

Stefan gave Caroline a sceptical look before speaking again. "It's weird, Caroline. I mean, I could clearly tell you were scrambling to fill the awkward silence."

"I—totally was," Caroline admitted awkwardly, with a slight look of guilt on her face. "Scrambling to fill the awkward silence. Okay, congratulations—you did make it a thing."

"It would appear I did... Alright, how about this? New rule- you live your life, you heal, and in the meantime, we're just friends."

Caroline nodded happily. "I _like_ that rule!"

"Good. Sorry to bother you."

"No, no you didn't bother me Stefan. Any time you wanna talk, I'm here. We're friends. Good friends. Best friends even. But just friends."

Stefan nodded, smiling warmly at her as he did. "Just friends."

Stefan then got up and walked away from the bench, leaving Caroline by herself again. She sighed. Something about when he said _just friends_ to her, indicated that he still did want more. And it's not like all of her feelings for him had completely gone away, because they hadn't. A part of her still very much wanted more from him to. But then another part of her, the logical part, said that loving Stefan had done nothing but create more problems for her, problems that she didn't need. On the other hand, Stefan knew her better than anyone else did, he was there for her when no one else was... she was beside herself. Conflicted. Very conflicted.

 **Elsewhere in the Town Square...**

Valerie Tulle, one of the Heretics, sat on another park bench in the town square, preparing to write in a diary of her own, but also keeping herself mystically cloaked from the world around her. She looked up from the diary for a minute, to see Stefan Salvatore walk past her, her heart sinking in her chest as she saw him pass her by. But she wasn't ready to see him again, wasn't ready to tell him the story of what happened to her all those years ago. With a sigh, she looked back down and started to write in her diary.

" _Dear Diary,_

 _I'm in hell. It's hard to imagine a place worse than where I've come from, but by some spectacular miracle, I found it. In the weeks since I've arrived, three things are clear: the food is literally made of poison, the air smells like a plague, and everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing. All. The. Time. I don't. I don't fit in here, nor do I want to. This is not the world I imagined, not the world I dreamt of coming back to. Complete and utter hell. Not that my family's making it any easier. Lily's sequestered us away in some musty abandoned house. Stoic Beau; Nora the brat; the devious, mental Mary Louise; and Malcolm, Lily's pet, the brown-noser. Oh and there's also a new addition to our little family that I almost forgot to mention. Lorenzo. A man Lily sired shortly before we got trapped in that damn Prison World, and by some twist of fate, they've been reunited. He comes off as decent enough guy, no real complaints about him. I just... long for a time before the Prison World, before we became the Heretics even. When we were just a bunch of siphoners that had been taken in by a vampire, who wanted to be a mother like figure to us. But regardless, the past is the past. I'm stuck in this day and age whether I like it or not._

 **Later that same day, a Street in Mystic Falls...**

Valerie was walking down a street, distracted, trying her best to reply to text messages she'd received from Lily on her cellphone. She struggled to get the touch screen keyboard to come up, tapping the screen several times, a frustrated and impatient look on her face. The messages read, _"Please let me know when you have the blood. Thank you." "Valerie? You haven't checked in. Please call." "You're missing breakfast. Where are you?"_

Suddenly, while Valerie was crossing the street, her eyes glued to the screen of her cellphone, she got struck by an SUV from behind, her now unconscious body rolling several yards down the road. The driver, a teenage boy with very curly hair, and the woman riding shotgun, stepped out of the car, both of them immediately rushing towards the unconscious Valerie. Valerie now had a bloody lower lip, and a bleeding forehead. "Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god! What did you do?" the woman panicked.

"I didn't think she'd walk right into the street!" the driver replied.

"Stu. Stu, we have to call 911. _Now_."

"Shut up Amanda! _Shut up!_ Just... just let me think."

Stu looked around for a moment, before coming up with an idea. "Alright, it's not like anyone saw us, right?"

Amanda was horrified by the suggestion. "Are you insane? We can't just—leave her here. She's not moving, and she's bleeding! A lot!"

"We just smoked a joint, okay?! I'm high as a freaking kite right now. Do you want me to go to jail?"

Amanda seemed conflicted, while Stu seemed irritated, impatient and panicked. "Let's go," he insisted, turning around and running back to the SUV, slipping back into the driver's seat and closing his car door, though Amanda stayed behind, staring at Valerie's unmoving body. Stu honked, and reluctantly, Amanda stood up ran back to the SUV, getting inside, the two driving away, going around Valerie as they did. After they were gone, Valerie bolted upright, her face still bloody. She sighed, an angry look on her face as she collected her bag and her phone, getting ready to leave.

 **The musty, abandoned house...**

Nora, Mary Louise, Beau and Malcolm sat around a table, Nora whispering something in Mary Louise's ear, Mary Louise giggling. On the table, were four tea cups that Lily was filling up with a teapot filled with fresh human blood. Lily offered a cup to Malcolm first, only for Malcolm to decline by holding one hand up, a kind smile on his face as he did. "None for me, Lily, thank you. I've already had my ration for today," he told her, passing the cup over towards Nora and Mary Louise.

Both Nora and Mary Louise rolled their eyes, seemingly in unison. "What a saint _you_ are, Malcolm," Nora mocked.

Malcolm shrugged, maintaining his smile, Lily walking over to him and rubbing one of his shoulders affectionately. After a moment, Nora reached over and took one of the cups from the table, putting it up to her lips, and drinking it until there was no more blood left in the cup to drink. She then put the empty cup back on the table, an unsatisfied look on her face.

"This is ludicrous," Nora complained.

"Nora's right," Mary Louise added. " How long are we to live on a mere three sips of blood a day? It's that prison world all over again."

"Beau's not complaining," Lily pointed out.

Mary Louise frowned. "Beau's _mute._ Has been ever since he had his vocal cords slashed."

Mary Louise then reached over and grabbed one of the cups for herself. As she drank from the cup, Beau threw a look that told her he was offended by her remark. Mary Louise, after she was done drinking, looked back at Beau apologetically. "Sorry Beau," Mary Louise said quietly.

"I know this is hard for you, for all of you, but this way... this way is better. We live in a very different world now, a world that takes note if large groups of people start dying from neck trauma all at once," Lily explained. "We can't afford to be—drinking to our heart's content anymore."

"Lily, you're starving us here."

Lily looked at Mary Louise both guiltily and apologetically.

"And here I thought we could have a nice family meal in peace!" Malcolm joked, before turning to look at Beau. "Beau, care to join me for a game of backgammon while the lovebirds bicker?"

Malcolm and Beau stood up out of their chairs and walked out of the room, Nora and Mary Louise exchanging sly looks with each other before turning back to look at Lily.

 **Kai's Bedroom...**

Kai was standing before a closed window in the bedroom of the home he rented in Mystic Falls. Kai stared at the window, watching as children played with a stoic look on his face. He continued to watch the children for a moment longer, before turning around and walking over towards a desk in the far, left-hand corner of his room. On the desk, was an open grimoire, and next to the grimoire, was an old looking cup filled with a dark green coloured liquid. Slowly and reluctantly, Kai picked the cup up, lifting it up to his mouth and drinking the liquid, wincing as he tasted it. It was by far the most bitter substance he had ever tasted in his life, but ingesting it was necessary.

What Kai had just drank was the same elixir he'd been drinking every week or so for the past four months. The elixir helped suppress any violent urges or instincts, but as a consequence of drinking the elixir, Kai now found himself feeling drowsy a lot, was more prone to headaches, and also felt the need to drink more, it was more or less like he was on some kind of prescription medication. A part of him wanted to stop taking the elixir altogether because of the unpleasant side effects alone, but another part of him told him that taking the medication was the right thing to do. He couldn't afford to have anymore violent outbursts, like he did at Jo's wedding and who knows, maybe if he went long enough without having any violent outbursts, Bonnie would actually start to warm up to him, and maybe even consider him her friend if he was likely.

Kai's growing feelings for Bonnie was another problem he was dealing with. At times, he hated Bonnie, because she made him feel something for her that he didn't think possible, a feeling that he never experienced before, and never felt for anyone else. He knew in his heart that he did have a crush on Bonnie, no, it went further than just a little crush he'd heard others talk about—he cared for Bonnie, so much so that he didn't hold it against her when she left him behind in the 1903 Prison World, so much so that he was taking this damn elixir for her. Sure he didn't want to hurt anyone in his coven again either, but he especially didn't want to hurt Bonnie. He had in the past and he never wanted to again. Now, all he wanted to do was help Bonnie, protect her. But any romantic feelings he had for Bonnie didn't really matter to anyone else but him. He knew Bonnie would never come to feel him what he felt for her. He'd hurt her too much for that. No, the best he was hoping for was a friendship. The only thing in his life that he ever wanted more than Bonnie's friendship, was to be the leader of the Gemini Coven. He managed to become the leader, in spite of the odds being stacked against him, maybe he would gain Bonnie's friendship after all.

Kai then put the empty cup back down on the desk and picked the grimoire up, starting to read from it.

 _ **A/N:**_ _I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of my season seven. If not, I promise it will get better. It may seem pretty close to canon right now but it will diverge a lot, especially since a lot of characters who are dead in canon are alive in this story. I also promise characters like Beau and Oscar will serve more of a purpose in this story. Still don't know if I'm going to include Julian in the present day or not. Thank you to those of you who have reviewed, favorited, or followed this story so far, it is very much appreciated. Also thank you to my readers who are still here lol. As well, Merry Christmas, or if you don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays :)_ **  
**


	9. The Heretics, Part Two

**The Vampire Diaries: Alternate Season 7**

 **Episode 1: The Heretics**

 **Part Two**

 **Alaric and Jo's Apartment in Boston...**

Alaric was sitting next to Jo on a dark blue coloured couch in their small apartment, Jo rewatching the video that her deceased father, Joshua Parker, had made in the event of his death, Jo watching very intently, Alaric giving Jo a look of concern. "Jo, honey, are you alright?" Alaric asked.

"No, no I'm not alright," Jo replied. "My mother is out there, my mother, who I was convinced was dead, is still out there, alive somewhere and I—I have no idea where she is or where to even begin to look now because apparently she's no longer going by the name Susan McCullough since that name has been erased from several records and databases, and-"

"Jo, hey, it's going to be okay," Alaric promised, taking Jo's left hand and holding it comfortingly. "We'll find her."

"How are we going to find her Ric? Locating spells aren't working, we have no leads-"

"We'll... figure something out."

Jo shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. "She's probably dead. That's it. She's probably passed away for real this time. And once again I... _missed her funeral_."

Alaric gave Jo a look of surprise. "You missed your mother's funeral?"

Jo nodded. "I did. I shouldn't have. I had no reason not to go but... I didn't want to go back there Alaric. Not back to Portland, I didn't want to see my dad again. At the time a part of me still blamed him for Kai's big meltdown in the first place. Ever since he found out Kai was a siphoner he treated him like he was nothing to him. That was bound to make him snap one day. I just didn't think he'd snap like that. My father called me to tell me when it happened, when my mother supposedly... _died_. He told me she died of a drug overdose, that she'd been abusing substances to cope with the death of her four children and the imprisonment of another. I didn't attend my mother's funeral because I was being selfish."

"Yeah but Jo, we know your mother didn't actually die now-"

"I thought she had Ric. I really thought she had. And I couldn't be bothered to say goodbye."

Alaric hesitated. "We'll find her Jo. I don't know how just yet, It might not be until after the babies are born, but we'll find her. Maybe... maybe if a powerful enough witch cast the locator spell it would work. Because the only reason why it's not working is because your mom cast a spell of her own to counteract any locator spells. But if we got a powerful enough witch-"

"What are you suggesting Ric?" Jo asked, a worried look on her face.

"We... we bite the bullet and ask Kai for help. He's the leader of the Gemini Coven and the most powerful witch we know-"

"No. No we're not asking him for help, we're not involving him in this. Kai didn't exactly have the best relationship with our mom either, if we involve him... he might kill her, like he killed our dad. It's not an option, it's off the table. Kai is out of our lives now, let's try and keep it that way. For our sake and... the sake of our future children. Speaking of family I should probably give Liv a call. Haven't talked to her in.. I think a week."

 **The Heretics' Home, Mystic Falls...**

Lily was still standing around while Mary Louise and Nora remained seated next to one another at the coffee table, empty tea cups in front of them that use to contain blood. Lily was giving the two of them a stern look. "I am headed to New York this afternoon to meet up with Lorenzo. I assume I have nothing to worry about?" Lily asked.

"So, you're allowed to explore the world while we're stuck here, starving ourselves, pretending like we're not the strongest people on the planet?" Nora asked in return.

"Need I remind you of how things use to be?"

Mary Louise smirked. "You mean when you loved us and allowed us to have _actual_ fun?"

"I've already told you both—earlier today I might add—that our appetite for murder drew unwanted attention, forced us to run for decades at a time, and _then_ got us imprisoned for one hundred years. Our way of living did not work, Mary Louise. Hence why the new way is... better."

Mary Louise looked at Lily incredulously. "Better for whom exactly? You want us to coexist with humans, treat our food source as equals, it's—it's insanity. Does a human treat livestock as equals?"

"No," Lily answered simply.

"Than why should we treat humans as our equals? They're not. They're food. Nothing more."

"What about Oscar? He's been gone _days_ running your errands. I highly doubt he's off living in secret," Nora joined in again. "And Enzo's been in New York for a month now, left just because he felt like it, and last I checked he wasn't exactly a boyscout either. I seem to remember he loved a good slaughter as much as the next vampire."

Before Lily could reply, Valerie entered the room, still injured, an exasperated look on her face. She dropped her bag to the floor. Lily turned to face her, immediately shocked and concerned by her injuries. "Valerie, you're a mess! What happened?" Lily asked in a worried tone.

"Some horrible teenagers plowed me down in their automobile."

"Oh, dear! Is their automobile okay?" Nora joked, Mary Louise laughing joyfully, but neither Lily nor Valerie looked the least bit amused.

Valerie scowled at Nora then glared at Lily. "The little monsters left me for dead! No apology, no call for help. I was roadkill, and what did I do? I acted like roadkill, because we're governed by a pacifist who'd rather see her children hurt than stand up for themselves."

Valerie turned around from them, her eyes flooding with tears, Valerie quickly trying to wipe them away. Lily looked at Valerie guiltily while Nora and Mary Louise exchanged looks with one another and softened up almost immediately, looking at Valerie with concern. Nora got up out of her chair and walked over towards Valerie, putting a hand on one of Valerie's shoulders. "Okay, don't cry. Okay? You're home now. You're with us."

Mary Louise then joined them. "Yeah. Who needs the rest of the world, right? We have each other."

Lily walked up to Valerie as well, rubbing her free shoulder affectionately. "You resisted your urge to fight back. That means you're learning. I'm so proud of you Valerie," Lily offered, but Valerie remained bitter, not the least bit comforted by Lily's words. Valerie picked up her bag again and left the room, leaving Lily, Nora and Mary Louise by themselves once again. Nora and Mary Louise exchanged another look, silently forming a plan to avenge Valerie.

 **The Lockwood Mansion...**

Tyler and Liv were arguing inside of Tyler's bedroom in the Lockwood Mansion, both of them standing by the bed. "Liv come on, you can't tell me you have absolutely no desire to see your mom again, the mom who you thought had been dead since 1996 until about five and a half months ago," Tyler said.

"I can, and I just did. If my mom is out there... it means she abandoned me. And Luke. Leaving us to be raised alone by our jerk of a father. I understandably have a hard time forgiving her for that," Liv stated in response, folding her arms.

"Liv, I wanna support you on this-"

"Then why aren't you?" Liv interrupted, clearly a little on edge.

Tyler hesitated. "Maybe because-because I lost my mom too. I know I wasn't as young as you when I did but," Tyler paused, Liv looking a little guilty. "Liv, if I could have my mom back... I'd give anything, in the world to have her back. But I'm pretty sure, unlike your mom, that my mom is gone for good, so... odds are I'll never see her again. But you might be able to see your mom again, to have her back in your life, if you made the effort."

"I just... I don't think I could ever handle seeing her again. Your relationship with your mom was different than the relationship I had with mine."

"Did you two not get along before she...?"

Liv shook her head. "The opposite. We loved each other a lot, but after Kai had his breakdown and murdered my brothers and sisters... my mom had a breakdown of her own. She was never the same again after that. I guess, looking back at it, that's probably what led her to fake her own death and run away like that. But still... she abandoned Luke and I. I have a hard time forgiving her for that. Whatever her reason was for doing that."

Tyler gave Liv a conflicted look, Liv trying to hide from him just how conflicted she was as well. Suddenly, Liv's cellphone ringtone went off in her pant pocket, Liv quickly taking her phone out and checking to see who it was that was calling her. _It was Jo_. Liv looked back up at Tyler for a moment. "It's my sister, I gotta take this," Liv said, Tyler nodding. Liv turned around and answered the call, putting her phone up to her ear. "Hey Jo..."

 **Mystic Falls High School...**

Stu and Amanda were standing by their parked SUV in the parking lot of Mystic Falls High, furiously washing down the outside of the vehicle in an attempt to erase any evidence of what they had done. Suddenly, Valerie came at the couple at vampire speed, grabbing Stu by the neck with one hand and brutally bashing his head into the windshield, the windshield shattering, a large splash of blood covering the broken glass. Valerie let go of Stu, allowing his dead body to fall to the ground. She then pointed at the blood and looked over at an utterly terrified Amanda. "Missed a spot," Valerie said coldly.

Amanda's eyes widened in fear. She took a few steps back, only to bump into Nora and Mary Louise, who appeared behind her from seemingly out of nowhere. Amanda gasped, turning around to look at Nora and Mary Louise. "Who are you?" she asked, still terrified, the fear very apparent in her eyes.

"Remember that large squirrel you ran over this morning? Turns out, that was actually our friend, Valerie," Mary Louise replied, not even answering Amanda's question.

Mary Louise gestured over to Valerie, Valerie waving in acknowledgement, Amanda turning to face her. "But... but you looked dead," Amanda stammered.

Valerie nodded, a small, devious grin on her face. "I get that a lot actually."

Amanda tried to flee for her life, but Nora threw out her hand. _"_ _Phesmatos motus!"_ Nora chanted, the nearest by car door suddenly flipping open, Amanda slamming into it. Amanda moaned in pain, but before she could try and escape again, Mary Louise threw out one of her hands.

" _Egia!_ " Mary Louise said, Amanda magically thrown closer to her. Mary Louise and Nora then roughly pulled Amanda up onto her feet as she was too weak to stand up on her own right now. Mary Louise leaned in and hissed into her ear. "You're worse than your friend. You thought about doing the right thing and yet.. you didn't. You just left her there. You know you have to pay for that."

Valerie caressed the bloody girl's face, swiping a drop of blood with one finger and putting it in her mouth, sucking it dry. Amanda gasped when Valerie's vampire features manifested as she consumed blood, Valerie sighing in relief at the taste. Valerie leaned closer towards Amanda so she could look the girl in the eye as she grabbed her by the neck. "And yet, you're the first thing in this town that I don't entirely _hate,_ " Valerie said, a now blank expression on her face.

Valerie then bared her fangs, Amanda screaming and struggling, but Mary Louise and Nora held her in place as Valerie sank the tips of her fangs into Amanda's neck, drinking every last drop of blood that rushed to the surface. Valerie fed deeply until Amanda's heart beat its last beat. Once she was done with the girl, she lifted her fangs out of Amanda's neck, taking a few steps back, Nora and Mary Louise smiling wickedly at her as she did. Valerie knew Nora and Mary Louise approved of what she did, and she knew it felt so good to kill both of those horrible teenagers, but the good she felt soon passed, replaced with a feeling of panic and worry at what Lily would do when she found out that they had broken one of her rules.

"Lily will be furious," Valerie said anxiously.

" _Lily_ needs to learn that Heretics aren't meant to coexist," Nora replied, quickly pulling out her cellphone and snapping a selfie with the dead Amanda, Valerie scoffing at her in disapproval as she did.

"Could you be any more vain, Nora?" Valerie asked.

"Well, if you were pretty, you'd be too."

Nora then carelessly dropped the body of Amanda on to the ground, focusing all of her attention on her cellphone, to Valerie's annoyance.

 **Later, at the scene of the crime...**

Sirens and radio chatter could be heard as Stefan and Matt came upon the bodies of Stu and Amanda. Both had been hung upside down from the back of a semi truck, Amanda completely bled out while Stu's corpse looked like it had been torched. Stefan grimaced at the sight while Matt looked horrified, gulping nervously. "Do you—do you think it was them?" Matt asked, looking over to Stefan, Stefan folding his arms.

"It's not my mother's handiwork I can tell you that much. Chances are she had no idea about this. As for those band of mass murdering misfits she's calling her children these days... I think it's fair to say they were the culprits. Unless Damon's off the wagon again," Stefan replied.

"Remind me why we give your brother a pass for everything again?"

Stefan looked as though he was about to answer, then hesitated.

"It's probably the Heretics," Matt added. "Which means-"

"They've declared war. Whether they realize it or not. And we're not going to stop until every last one of them is dead."

 **The Salvatore Boarding House...**

Bonnie, Kai, Damon, Elena, Stefan, Matt, Caroline and Liv all stood around a room in the Salvatore Boarding House, discussing how to handle the Heretics. "Do we even know for certain it was them? Beyond a reasonable doubt?" Kai asked, looking over to Stefan and Matt, Stefan nodding while Matt hesitated.

"Well we know I didn't do it," Damon added.

"I'm just saying we're talking about making an attack on a coven of witchpires here. It's not something to be taken lightly," Caroline argued.

"I agree," Liv jumped in. "But these—witchpires, they have a history of murder and mayhem. Two people happen to show up dead, one of the bodies completely drained of blood, we know it wasn't any of the vampires in this room, and chances are it wasn't a vampire from out of town so-"

"Alright, point taken. It was probably them. So I'll tell the coven, dig out the replacement 1903 Ascendant and we'll send them back to the Prison World," Kai interrupted.

"Except I don't want to send them back to the Prison World," Stefan added, everyone looking over to him. "I want them dead. Are we forgetting that they're half siphoners here? If we send them back to the Prison World they'll just... borrow some magic from the right places or right objects and they'll find their way back to the real world again. I don't wanna chance it. We're going to end this once and for all, and we're going to kill them. Any objections?"

"Uh, yeah, I object," Kai replied. "You wanna kill the Heretics? Do you realize how powerful they are? One on one, each and every one of them is a force to be reckoned with, but together—together they're practically unstoppable."

"So we'll... divide and conquer," Stefan suggested.

"It would just be easier to send them back to the Prison World where they can rot for eternity-"

"Except there's no guarantee that they'll be in that Prison World for an eternity. Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it," Stefan interrupted, to Kai's mild frustration.

Elena stepped forward. "Why don't we put it up to a vote? Those in favour of killing the Heretics, raise your hand," Elena said, immediately raising her hand up in the air as she said it. Damon, Stefan, Matt and Caroline followed.

Damon gave Bonnie a look of shock, Bonnie shrugging her shoulders at him. "I hate being on the same side as Kai when it comes to.. well, anything but... these Heretics are _monsters_. They maim, and they kill, killed more people than any vampire in this room if records are anything to go by. And they'll keep killing, they're never going to get any better. They deserve to rot, if we kill them they're suffering is already over with," Bonnie argued. "And besides, the Heretics wouldn't be able to use Qetsiyah's tombstone to escape from the Prison World again because Kai already destroyed it coming back to Earth from that Prison World the first time. There's no way they could escape again."

"Well, unfortunately for you Bon-bon, we're not waiting until we're all unanimous on the matter. Majority of us have voted to kill the Heretics, therefore... we're gonna kill the Heretics," Damon replied, Bonnie throwing him a look.

"Just so I'm clear on the plans here, we're really going to just... _divide and conquer_ the Heretics?" Liv asked, looking over to Stefan, Stefan nodding.

"Best plan we got," Stefan answered.

"Actually," Damon jumped in again. "I have an even better plan in mind, a plan that just popped into my head. We can kill all of the Heretics in one fell swoop easily enough. All we have to do, is wait until they're all under the same roof, and bomb them."

"You really think a bomb is going to be enough to wipe out all of them? You think six heretics are going to be wiped out by a boom?!" Kai asked incredulously.

Damon shrugged. "I don't see why not. They might be immortals with magic but they're also vampires. And vampires... well I don't know if you've forgotten, are highly flammable. A bomb should do the trick."

"Okay, next question, do you even know how to make a bomb?"

Damon smirked. "No, but I have a friend who does, the man who's set to become your brother-in-law and the father of your nieces and/or nephews," Damon said, taking out his cellphone, powering it on, and calling Alaric, putting the phone up to his ear.

" _Hello? Damon?"_ Alaric's voice asked.

"It's me," Damon confirmed. "Here's the deal, Heretics killed a couple of kids for seemingly no good reason, and, well long story short, I need you to give me a crash course on how to make a bomb."

Damon could hear Alaric sighing on the other end. _"Alright."_

"Great. Let's get started."

On the other side of the room, Caroline looked over to Liv. "So um... where's Tyler?" Caroline asked awkwardly.

"He had some stuff to do back at home," Liv replied.

Caroline nodded. "Oh."

 **A Bar in New York City...**

Lily walked into a bar, looking around for Enzo as she made her way into the building, an anxious look on her face, nervously smoothing out her dress with her hands. After a moment, she made her way over to the bar and sat down. After a moment passed of sitting by herself, she sensed the presence of a man standing behind her. "I was wondering when you'd show up," a voice from behind her said, a voice Lily recognized as Enzo's.

Enzo moved out to beside Lily, sitting down next to her at the bar and gesturing toward the bartender, trying to grab the woman's attention, Lily smiling at him affectionately as he did. The female bartender soon made her way over to Enzo and Lily, ready to take his order. "Two of your finest scotch, please, darling," Enzo said, smiling politely at the woman, the woman nodding.

"Lorenzo, how I've missed you," Lily said softly as she began to rub Enzo's back, happy to see him.

"And who's fault is that?" Enzo replied playfully. "I believe it was your idea I get out of the house, wanting to keep me away while you toilet-train your new-batch of orphaned puppies..."

Lily resisted the urge to get defensive. He did just insult her family after all, even if she considered Enzo family as well. "They're learning moderation so they can live under the radar. You being there, living freely-"

Enzo looked a little hurt. "Yeah, bad influence, blah blah blah. Got it."

Lily paused, looking at Enzo awkwardly for a moment. "How's New York been?"

"I like it well enough. Even though it does smell like piss most of the time, and the people... are mostly obnoxious."

"Being here, brings back memories," Lily admitted, Enzo giving her a look of sympathy. "Coming here in 1903 turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes we ever made. If you recall, it's where we had a run-in with the Gemini Coven, who banished us to that awful prison world where we spent the next century. We would've been there for all eternity, if not for Kai."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright, what matters is we're out now. One more thing, Lorenzo—the others, some of us are sceptical of whose side you're really on," Lily added. "They don't know if they can trust you.

Enzo quickly became upset. "Trust me? I stood by you, Lily, when you're own sons abandoned you," Enzo pointed out.

"I haven't forgotten. Still, there's something... something I need you to do, to assure myself, and the others, of your loyalty. There's a stone, that the Gemini Coven is in possession of, and have been for the last 700 years. It's a powerful stone, capable of resurrecting someone who has already passed on to the afterlife. It's called the Stone of Osiris... what I want you to do Lorenzo, is use your connections, the friendships you've formed with my sons and their friends... I want you to come back to Mystic Falls and steal that stone for me."

Enzo looked torn by Lily's request, taking a minute or two to consider it before answering. "Get your own damn rock. I'm no one's errand boy," Enzo told Lily coldly, getting up and walking away from the bar, leaving Lily by herself, who looked saddened by Enzo's reaction.

 **A/N:** _I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, be sure to leave a review if you wanna share your thoughts on it with me, if you have any suggestions, criticisms, etc._


	10. The Heretics, Part Three

The Vampire Diaries: Alternate Season 7

Episode 1: The Heretics

Part Three

 **Salvatore Boarding House...**

A few days had passed since they voted as a group on how to take out the Heretics. It was also early in the day, early enough that the sun was still hanging high in the sky. Damon and Stefan were finishing the bomb at the kitchen table when Caroline walked into the room and approached them. "So there's five Heretics, two boys, three girls. And your mom isn't home so now would probably be as good of time as any," Caroline said.

Damon and Stefan both looked up from the bomb for a minute to look at Caroline. "Enzo?" Damon asked.

"He's not there either. I actually have no clue where he is," Caroline replied.

"Ditto. No worries, I imagine he'll turn up eventually."

Caroline walked over to the table and picked up the bomb, tossing it in her hands, Stefan's eyes widening as she did while Damon merely rolled his. "Whoa, whoa!" Stefan said to Caroline in a cautious tone.

"Show me how this works," Caroline ordered.

The three of them sit down at the table, Caroline sitting to Stefan's right while Damon sat on Stefan's left, Stefan preparing to explain to Caroline how the bomb worked. "That there is the timer. The plan is to set it for sixty seconds," Stefan explained, programming the timer on the bomb, Caroline and Damon watching intently.

"Sixty seconds. Got it."

Stefan gave her a look of concern. "Are you sure you want to do this? Because you know, Damon or I could still do this-"

"I _have_ to do this. They lived in your house for a hundred years. They've seen your pictures. They'll recognize either one of you _immediately_."

"I'm just saying... If you think this is a crazy plan, now's the time to speak up."

Damon smirked. "Is there _any_ version of this plan where you're _not_ overly concerned about Caroline?"

Stefan and Caroline looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before looking away, to Damon's mild annoyance. "I don't see what the problem is myself. Vampire boy likes vampire girl, vampire girl likes vampire boy, can't you two just hurry up and get together and... I don't know not make babies or something?" Damon asked. "Because acting all awkward around each other and ignoring the rather obvious elephant in the room... doesn't seem to be working out well for anyone. Just saying."

"And I don't see why we can't make a muzzle for you," Caroline replied, Damon glaring at her. "Other than the fact that Elena would probably object."

Probably," Stefan added. "Though I'm inclined to do it anyways right about now."

"Alright let's focus on our real enemy here. Mommy's replacement children and how we're going to kill all of them in one fell swoop," Damon paused. "We need a more detailed plan, or is the plan literally just Caroline walks up to the door, knocks three times, leaves the bomb and runs like hell?"

"It's... not the worst plan in the world," Stefan answered awkwardly, Damon throwing him a look as he did. "I suppose we could make just adjustments."

 **The Heretics' Home...**

Caroline rang the doorbell at the Heretics' current home. After a moment, Nora answered the door, only to find an extremely perky looking Caroline standing on the other side, carrying a vase of purple orchids in her hands.

"Welcome to Mystic Falls! I'm Caroline," Caroline said cheerfully.

Nora stared at Caroline blankly for a moment. "We're not interested," she replied, going to shut the door, only for Caroline to stop her. Nora sighed, annoyed while Caroline maintained her perky smile.

"Oh. Oh, no! Don't worry, I'm not selling anything. I'm your neighbor from down the block!"

"So?" Nora asked unimpressed. "And what do you mean welcome we've been living here for.. I don't know, around five to six months now."

A little nervous, Caroline ignored Nora's statement, unable to think of a good response and slipped past Nora into the house before Nora could stop her, entering into the foyer and looking around. Nora sighed once more, Caroline was really starting to irritate her. "Wow! Great place. Love what you've done with the floors. Is this the original hardwood?" Caroline asked, knowing that by now Matt was somewhere in the house as well, getting the bomb ready.

Beau, Mary Louise and Valerie were in the living room, looking at Caroline warily from where they were sitting. Mary Louise was playing solitaire on the coffee table, while both Beau and Valerie were reading books. "It's a gargantuan hell-hole. No one gives a damn about the floors," Valerie said, sounding just as irritated as Nora looked.

Just then, Malcolm walked into the living room, a cup of blood in one hand, joining the rest of the Heretics. "Well, I brought you guys a housewarming gift. Mystic Falls tradition!" Caroline replied cheerily.

"Valerie's allergic to nature and as I _implied_ earlier, we're in no need of a _bloody_ housewarming gift," Nora added.

Caroline gestured toward the nearby table and walked over it to with the flowers still in her hands. "I'm just gonna put this here, then..."

Caroline then heard the beginning of a loud squeaking sound. _Matt made that sound._ Impulsively, Caroline knocked over a ceramic deer figure off the table she was in front of, the deer falling to the floor and shattering it, Caroline hoping that the shattering ceramic would distract from the sound Matt was making, which she suspected was him playing with the gas line. "I am _so_ sorry!" Caroline said to the Heretics in an apologetic tone. "Clumsy."

Beau and Mary Louise gave Caroline a death glare, making her that much more nervous and anxious. "So, um... where are you guys from?" Caroline asked them, trying to make small talk as she awkwardly scrambled to pick up the pieces of the shattered ceramic deer. Caroline then put the pieces on the table door and faced Nora again, Nora looking her up and down.

"I _do_ love that jacket," Nora said.

"Thanks! I got it for my birth-"

But Nora cut Caroline off, looking at Mary Louise who was now standing a few feet behind Caroline, Nora gesturing to Caroline's jacket. "Don't you just _love_ what she's wearing?"

Mary Louise shrugged. "It's fine. Though it would look entirely better on you," she replied with a growing smile on her face.

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. They all turned to find Matt standing in the threshold of the front door, a pretty apparent nervous look on his face. "Hey, Caroline- we should really get going to that barbeque," Matt said, looking over at Caroline.

"And you would be...?" Mary Louise asked.

"Her ride," Matt replied politely, before throwing Caroline a look. "Care, we should really go."

" _Care_ isn't leaving just yet," Nora snapped. Both Matt and Caroline visibly panicked as Nora walked over closer to Caroline, staring deeply into her eyes, as if she were trying to compel her. "Give me your jacket," Nora ordered.

Without hesitating, Caroline smiled brightly and stripped off her jean jacket, handing it to Caroline. "Here! Take my jacket."

"Thank you," Nora replied smugly. "How sweet you are!"

Nora put on the jacket, Caroline turning to Mary Louise. "See you!" she said cheerfully, turning around to leave, only for Mary Louise to swiftly grab her by the shoulder. Caroline was sweating now, Matt growing even more anxious, knowing that was maybe 15 seconds left to spare, maybe a little more than that if they were lucky.

"Wait," Mary Louise said sharply, spinning Caroline around so she could face her, staring deeply into her eyes as well, trying to compel her. "You forget to tell her how good she looks."

Caroline turned to look at Nora. "It looks _amazing_ on you!"

Nora smiled. Suddenly, Valerie stood up, a concerned look on her face. "Does anyone else smell that?" she asked.

The fake smiles on Matt and Caroline's faces instantly faded. Thinking fast, Caroline used her vampire speed and ran out of the face, grabbing Matt as she ran past him. Just as they practically fell off the threshold and into the front yard of the Heretics' home, the house behind them ignited in flames, exploding. Had she waited a second longer, her and Matt would've been burnt to a crisp. Caroline and Matt looked back at the house as it went down in flames, both of them now looking more relieved than anything else. They then got to their feet and made a run for it, not sticking around to see what happened next.

 **Kai's House in Mystic Falls...**

Kai came to the front door of his house after he heard knocking on the door moments earlier. He opened the door, only to see Bonnie standing on the other side, to his surprise. "Bonnie, hey, what are you doing here?" Kai asked.

"I came to see if you planned to live up to your end of the deal we made six months ago. The deal where you helped me take out the Heretics and then you walked out of my life, for good," Bonnie replied, her arms folded. "The Heretics are gone now, as far as we know, so I think you can safetly move back to Portland, Oregon now."

Kai sighed. "Don't worry, I was just packing my bags. I'll be out of your hair before you know it. You won't ever have to see me again and be reminded again of the _horrible_ things I did to you."

Bonnie bit down on her tongue for a moment and nodded at him. She didn't want to give him the impression that she was starting to acknowledge that he had genuine feelings of remorse now. She was still worried if she did that Kai would take advantage of it, because she knew the old him, the him that stabbed her and kidnapped her and left her for dead in the 1994 Prison World was still in there somewhere. "Good."

"Yep. So is that it? You just came to see if I was actually leaving?"

Bonnie shrugged. "More or less."

Kai smirked bitterly. "Well now you have your answer, so you can go about the rest of your day," he replied, trying to close the door on Bonnie, only for Bonnie to stop him at the last minute. He sighed again, this time a little more frustrated. He opened the door back up.

"Kai wait-"

"What do you want from me Bonnie? I've said I'm sorry, I've taken—magical drugs to suppress my violent urges, drugs that I might add make me tired, and more thirsty, and headachy, and you know why I was taking those drugs? To make sure I didn't hurt you, or any of my coven, or any of your—stupid friends ever again. So you could feel safer around me. But sure enough you... you don't. Because I'll always be the man who nearly drove you to the point of ending your own life, and I can never hope to make up for that, as hard as I try. I don't even know how, but I... I know I want to. I still do. But I can't. So... just let me be on my way. Forget about me."

"Kai-"

"What?" Kai asked, exasperated.

Bonnie hesitated. "I... I know you tried, Kai. I know you want to be better, because merging with Luke actually did change you, as much I hate to admit it... I really didn't want to say it to you, because... you're one of the most unpredictable people I've ever met, along with Damon of course. But... I do, honestly believe that there's a sliver of good in you now. And maybe... maybe I should've given you credit for how much you have tried earlier, but—I couldn't. I just... I just couldn't."

"I can't tell you just how frustrating that is, how frustrating—all of this is. I'm not Kai anymore, not the old Kai at least. I'm not Luke. I'm just... some guy caught in the middle of both. And I don't want to be. But... it's what I deserve isn't it? I... I killed him," Kai said, tears starting to form in his eyes, to Bonnie's surprise. "I killed Luke. I killed... Joey. I killed five of my siblings. I.. I killed my dad too. I caused so much pain, so much suffering to everyone around me. I'm sorry I can't do anything about that. I'm sorry I bring more pain still. But it's... it's in my nature, it's in my very soul. I was never meant to be good, even if—I wanna be good now. I was always meant to be evil, the sociopath, the—the abomination, the freak, the monster, the black sheep, the—defective twin."

"Kai..."

"Don't—don't say anything more. Just.. I don't want to have this conversation anymore. Go, go back home, live your life. And once again, I'm sorry, for everything I ever did to you, ever awful thing-"

"Thank you. For trying," Bonnie interrupted, a surprisingly sympathetic look on her face, Kai only becoming more vulnerable.

"...What? You're—you're thanking me?"

"Yes. I am. Because you did try."

Kai nodded slowly. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For the acknowledgment. And for changing my life."

Kai and Bonnie just stared at one another for a long moment, Kai still teary eyed, Bonnie still sympathetic, before Kai closed the door on her, walking away.

 **Salvatore Boarding House...**

Stefan was standing in a room of the Salvatore Boarding House, wearing a black suit and plain dark red tie, standing before a mirror, his cellphone up to his ear. _"To what do I owe this rare pleasure?"_ Lily asked over the phone. From the sounds of it, she was in a moving car somewhere.

"I hope you weren't too attached to that house. We blew it into a pile of ash with your so called family inside," Stefan replied coldly.

" _I'm sorry, you did what?!"_

Stefan continued to stare blankly at the mirror, unphased by Lily's reaction. "They killed two people, high school students, a boy and a girl, in cold blood, and left there bodies out in the open for us to find. They broke the peace, we didn't have a choice. So we plotted their downfall. And then we killed them. They're gone, Lily. And you have until tonight to get out of Mystic Falls, or we come after you next," Stefan explained.

Stefan waited for Lily to respond, noticing she was pausing on her end. _"Uh, centuries-old Heretics, world-weary survivalists, wise-beyond their lifetime, eviscerated from the planet in one fell swoop?"_ Lily asked sceptically, Stefan starting to grow worried. Caroline told him she saw the house go up in flames. There's no way they could've escaped with their lives but yet.. Lily seemed so certain they did. _"My son, if I may offer you some motherly advice? Run. Because when they recover from whatever you did, they will come for you, and they will be merciless when it comes to getting their vengeance."_

Slowly, Stefan pressed the end call button. He still had Matt's graduation to go to and he didn't intend on missing it. Although, if by some chance the Heretics did actually survive and were looking for revenge... the graduation would probably be where they would strike. As he already learned, they had no worries about drawing attention to themselves.

 **Town Square, Mystic Falls...**

Several citizens of Mystic Falls had gathered outside in the town's square to watch the most recent students of the police academy graduate, who were officially becoming deputies. In the audience was Elena, Damon, Caroline, Tyler and Liv. Among the graduates, was Matt, who was wearing his sheriff's deputy uniform.

"Please join me in recognizing our graduating class of new deputies as I read their names and they receive their badges," the Sheriff announced, standing centre stage.

The graduating students stood and walked up to the stage in a single file line. Unbeknownst to anyone, Mary Louise and Nora were standing behind the back row of seats as they took in the crowd, both of them wearing devious smiles on their faces. "What a happy little town this is. I bet they have the most _darling_ funerals," Nora said snidely.

Mary Louise giggled. "Nora, I swear your heart must be made of pure arsenic!"

Nora smiled at her. "Admit it. You love me more for it."

Mary Louise looked at Nora lovingly. "You know I do."

The two reached over and held hands, lacing their fingers together as they smiled at one another. "Deputy Cornell Willis," the Sheriff announced, shaking a man's hand on stage and handing him a diploma, Mary Louise and Nora too focused on another to pay attention. After a moment, Mary Louise got uncomfortable and let go of Nora's hand, to Nora's confusion.

"Mar... it's the twenty first century. We can hold hands now," Nora assured her. Nora took Mary Louise's hand in an act of defiance, holding it tightly, Mary still looking just as uncomfortable. Suddenly, the pair were interrupted by Malcolm.

"Oh my god, is this your first date in public? How _adorable_ ," Malcolm mocked. "Not that I would know, I don't exactly follow you two around. You know most men today actually find the idea of two women kissing arousing? I don't understand it myself, I mean the whole point is that men _aren't_ involved."

"Ever the crude one," Nora replied, a slightly annoyed look on her face. "You would think a century in a Prison World would've taught you some manners."

"Surprisingly no."

"How about we just focus on revenge?" Mary Louise added, Malcolm grinning.

 **Kai's House in Mystic Falls...**

Hearing knocking on the door again, Kai reluctantly went to answer it, wondering who it could be now. At this rate he'd never get done packing. Slowly, Kai opened the door, only to see Valerie standing on the other side, a somewhat angry look on her face, to Kai's surprise. "Hey Valerie... what brings you to my neck of the woods?" Kai asked nervously.

"Your _bloody_ friends tried to kill me and my family. With some kind of bomb no less. Tell me, did you play any part in it?"

Kai gulped. Normally, he didn't fear anyone. In fact, before going to the 1903 Prison World, he didn't fear anyone, except maybe his parents. But after the Prison World... to say he was scared of the Heretics was any understatement. Maybe not so much Valerie because she was the most compassionate of the Heretics but he knew if she was here, it more than likely meant the others weren't far behind. "I, uh... I had no idea. And what do you mean friends? Do I look like the kinda guy who has friends?"

"Caroline. Matt," Valerie replied bitterly, gritting her teeth. "I'm certain you know them. I know you've wanted us gone ever since getting out of that damn prison world. The moment we break that little deal the Salvatores made with us, an attempt is made on our lives. Coincidence? I think not. And something, mainly your blatant hatred of us, has made me suspect you played a role in all of this. Right now what I want to know is, what role you played exactly?"

 _ **A/N:** And the latest chapter ends here. I hope you all enjoyed, I had a lot of fun writing the Bonnie/Kai scene in this chapter. I apologize that the Heretics are getting focused on so much in this chapter and the last two chapters... and the next chapter, but I named the episode "The Heretics" for a reason, introducing my villains, except Valerie, she's one of the good Heretics in this story. They won't be as heavily featured later on, but still featured obviously._


	11. The Heretics, Part Four

The Vampire Diaries: Alternate Season 7

Episode 1: The Heretics

Part Four

 _ **Author's Note:** I apologize for the long wait. Here it is, I hope you enjoy. I also apologize ahead of time for Jo and Alaric not being present this chapter, they will be in the next one though, honest._

 **Town Square, Mystic Falls...**

"Deputy Taylor Hall," the sheriff read at the graduation ceremony for the police academy in the town square.

After a moment, Malcolm, Nora and Mary Louise closed their eyes and began to cast a spell, smirking in anticipation for the imminent chaos as they repeated the incantation together. " _Confuso fatina..._ " the three of them chanted.

"Deputy Matthew Donovan," the sheriff said, Matt smiling, walking over to the sheriff on the stage and accepting his badge with a look of pride on his face.

In the audience, Caroline, Elena and Tyler clapped enthusiastically for him, unaware of what was about to happen, or who else was in attendance.

" _Ignos et ignos mortifina,_ " Malcolm, Nora and Mary Louise chanted. " _Confuso fatina, ignos et ignos mortifina._ "

Matt then shook hands with a silver haired man, the new mayor, before leaving the stage. The sheriff continued reading the names of the new deputies. "Deputy Tim Johnson..."

" _Confuso fatina, ignos et ignos mortifina._ "

"Deputy Jeffrey Morrison..." the sheriff went on.

Matt walked past Caroline and held up his badge as he did, Caroline smiling proudly at him as he returned to his seat.

" _Confuso fatina, ignos et ignos mortifina._ "

"Deputy Don Morris," the sheriff read, Stefan suddenly appearing behind Caroline, an anxious look on his face. He knelt so he could whisper in her ear.

"Hey, I think we have a problem," Stefan whispered to Caroline, Caroline turning to look at him, a concerned look on her face.

" _Confuso fatina, ignos et ignos mortifina._ "

Out of nowhere, every lawn sprinkler around the town square's park went off simultaneously, spraying the veteran deputies and the sheriff onstage with water, many of them rushing away in response, the audience laughing in amusement. Mary Louise and Nora giggled as well, satisfied by their first step in their revenge plot, while Malcolm was merely grinning wickedly. "Sorry for the malfunction folks," the sheriff said, looking embarrassed as he addressed the crowd.

The sheriff left the stage, along with several audience members in the front row who were now soaked with water. Nora and Mary Louise continued to giggle, while Malcolm focused on his target. _"Incendia!"_ Malcolm chanted loudly.

Suddenly, the water from the sprinklers transformed into fire, igniting in flames, several people in the audience screaming in fear and horror. Damon and Elena stood up, Damon looking very alarmed and worried for Elena's safety, Liv, Tyler, Caroline and Matt doing the same, panicking a little, looking around to see where the attackers in question were. Meanwhile, the rest of the deputies were trying to usher everyone to safety. One of the new graduates, who had been soaked with the sprinkler water, was now burning alive, screaming in horrible agony.

"Show yourself Heretics!" Liv shouted.

The stage and the podium were quickly consumed in flames. The gang split up into pairs, except for Matt who was on his own, going in separate directions, looking for members of the Heretics. Mary Louise grabbed a fleeing audience member and began to feed on her, and Beau, who had just appeared, doing the same.

Elsewhere, Matt had just found the Sheriff, who was badly burned and partially drained of blood, to Matt's horror. Matt quickly found an abandoned piece of burned clothing nearby and pressed it to the sheriff's neck with one hand while holding the sheriff's hand with the other. "Help!" Matt shouted. "Somebody help!"

But seemingly nobody heard Matt's pleas for help. Everyone was panicking and trying to escape with their lives. Malcolm, who had just finished feeding on a female deputy, picked the dead body up and tossed her into the flames, laughing sadistically while he did it, his teeth and shirt stained with the poor girl's blood. Damon and Elena then crossed paths with the laughing Heretic, Damon glaring at him, while forcing Elena to stand behind in a protective manner. Malcolm soon took notice of Damon and Elena's presence, quickly waving a hand and becoming invisible to their eyes. For no apparent reason, Damon's neck suddenly snapped, Damon falling to the ground, unconscious, Elena gasping. Then Elena was covered by Malcolm's cloaking spell, Elena becoming invisible to everyone except Malcolm. Elena could now see Malcolm again, staring at his bloody face and shirt fearfully, unsure of what to do next.

"Relax dear, you've been cloaked. Nobody can hear or see you right now. Meaning you're all mine. And I know exactly what I want to do with you. Something I've been waiting for just the right moment to do," Malcolm said with a grin.

Elena tried to run, but Malcolm caught her with his vampire speed, grabbing her by the wrists, staring deeply into her eyes, Elena staring back into his. Elena struggled to break free from his grasp, but it was no use, he was too strong. " _O se kwe pe se,_ " Malcolm chanted, Elena's head forcefully dipping back as he did. "I've cursed you, to a terrible, bloody death, unable to even jump bodies to escape it. Over the next few days, hopefully you'll get the chance to say goodbye to everyone in your life that ever mattered to you and _is_ still alive. Clock starts now, Elena Gilbert. Tick tock, tick tock."

 **Kai's House in Mystic Falls...**

"Well I'd love to tell you, but see the thing is—I don't have to, because you see, you're a vampire, so you still need an invitation to enter the residence of a living person, which I happen to be, so all I have to do is close the door, and—I've made you disappear," Kai said, closing the door on Valerie. He then took a couple steps back, staring at the door for a moment.

On the other side, Valerie smirked at the now closed front door to Kai's house. She put a finger against the door and began to chant, _"Invitationem",_ under her breathe.

Valerie then started to mutter a different word. _"Illucescente."_

Suddenly, the door fell down, the hinges snapping, revealing a frightened Kai standing a few feet away, unsure what to do next. Valerie then stepped on to the broken door, walking closer to Kai, Kai slowly walking backwards, away from Valerie. "What you failed to take into account, dear Malachai, is that—I'm not just a vampire. I'm also a siphoner. I'm a Heretic. Which means, I can just cast a spell and get past that whole pesky invitation rule. But you didn't think of that, did you?"

"No, but I really should have," Kai admitted. Unexpectedly, twin trails of a dark green fluid began to run down from his nose, to Valerie's confusion, Valerie stopping in her tracks. Kai then coughed a little, coughing up the same dark green fluid.

"Kai, what the hell is going on with you?" Valerie asked.

Kai gave Valerie a psychotic looking smile. "The violence is pouring out of me." Kai held out one hand. _"Motus!"_

With that, Valerie went flying through the air, going through the now open doorway and landing outside the house, Kai taking the opportunity to quickly cast a cloaking spell, protecting himself.

 **Town Square, Mystic Falls...**

The town square was now littered with dead bodies, some of them drained, others burned, some were both drained and burned. Fires still raged, Liv and Tyler squaring off against Beau, Stefan and Caroline encountering Nora and Mary Louise, while Malcolm ran wild, Elena attempting to drag Damon's unconscious body away from the fires, a worried and somewhat confused look on her face as she did. She didn't want to believe what Malcolm told her, that she was now cursed to die and there was nothing she could do about it, no, she didn't believe it.

"Motus!" Liv shouted, holding her hand out, sending Beau flying through the air. Tyler then ran over to Beau with a makeshift wooden stake and pounced on him, tackling him and pining him down, planning to drive the stake into Beau's heart, but Beau managed to throw Tyler off of him, getting back to his feet and taking the stake from his hand, throwing it into the nearest by flame. Beau then put Tyler into a headlock, leaning down on his neck and preparing to bite him, Liv not waiting to act again, running towards the pair, her hand held out, focusing on Beau. _"Motus,"_ she chanted again, Beau forcibly letting Tyler go and falling back a few steps, able to somewhat resist Liv's magic this time.

"Hello neighbor," Nora said with a twisted smile on her face, looking at Caroline, while Mary Louise was staring down Stefan. The couple both cast pain infliction spells on Caroline and Stefan at once, both of them falling to their knees, holding their heads in pain. "Ahh, ahh," Stefan moaned in pain.

Out of nowhere, Lily Salvatore appeared in the middle of the wreckage, a dismayed look on her face. "Enough!" she shouted.

Every Heretic immediately stopped what they were doing, Nora and Mary Louise releasing Stefan and Caroline from their pain infliction spells, Malcolm and Beau looking somewhat apologetic. "I fought tirelessly to reunite us, found ways to coexist in this new world, sacrificed _everything_ to make us a family again! How dare you jeopardize that? _All_ of you..." Lily went on, staring not only at her children, but also at Stefan, Elena, Caroline, Tyler, Liv and Matt. "The bloodshed ends now."

Lily walked away, the Heretics following, while Stefan helped Elena pick up Damon's unconscious body, Caroline, Matt, Tyler and Liv looking appalled and devastated by all the carnage.

 **Mystic Falls Church...**

Kai walked through the front doors of the Mystic Falls Church, his lips, chin and shirt now stained with the green fluid that he expelled earlier, as a result of the non-violent elixir suddenly failing him. Kai walked up the aisle of the Church, taking note of the fact that the Church was mostly empty, except for himself and a single man, who was sitting on one of the benches, silently praying. Kai grinned wickedly. All he wanted to do right now, the only thing he had on his mind, was violence.

"Hey!" Kai called out to the man. "You over there."

The man stopped praying and turned around almost immediately. He was taken aback by the sight of the strange green liquid on Kai, jumping a little. "Hey. Are—are you okay?" the man asked.

Kai chuckled unnervingly. "Funny you should ask that. I haven't really been okay for the longest time now. And now, right now, I feel—better than okay. I feel like my old self again. Someone who wasn't burdened by things like love, guilt, remorse, all that _annoying_ stuff. And I gotta tell you, it is so good to feel like me again."

The man stood up from the bench, staring Kai down nervously. "Sir, I don't know what you're going through, I don't know who you are, but I think I can help you. If you'll let me. Believe me, I've been in a bad place before too, and you know what helped me get out of that place? Or who? Let me tell you who, God helped me get out of that deep, dark place-"

"Unfortunately for you, I'm not a particularly religious person. Never have been. I could never really fit a God into my twisted world view believe it or not."

"Sir-"

"No, I wasn't done talking. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in salvation, or redemption, or good and evil. I believe in power. It's all about who has it, and who doesn't. I thought when I became the leader of the Gemini Coven, that I would have all the power I ever wanted. Instead, ironically enough, I became weaker. Because, you see, in order to become the leader of my coven, I had to merge with my younger brother, and after I merged with him, I started to become like him, I started to have empathy for others... I started to fall for this girl, this girl who has screwed me over so many times now, this girl who left me to die in a 1903 Prison World... this girl who sometimes has trouble even looking at me. I gotta tell you, had I known, this would happen if I did the Merge... I would've never done it. No, I would've stayed a siphoner. But it's too late for that now. Though my conscience doesn't seem to be bothering me at the moment. Maybe I've finally conquered it. Guess we'll see."

The man gave Kai a pleading look. "Please, sir, don't hurt me. I—I can still help you."

"I DON'T NEED HELP!" Kai shouted. He extended one arm outwards and made a gesture with his hand, the man finding himself mystically pulled towards Kai, until he was standing inches away from him. "What I need... what I need, is someone to really go to town on, someone to—unload on. Would you mind being that someone for me?"

"Please—I have a family."

Kai laughed bitterly. "So do I. I imagine yours care for you a lot more than mine ever did."

"I—I have two little girls at home. Please, have mercy. I won't tell anyone, I swear."

"Shut up," Kai ordered, forcing the man to fall to his knees, then punching him hard across the face, Kai trying to force a smile on his while he did it, only to frown, against his will, when he saw the man starting to bleed from the nose after hitting him a second time, this time, harder than the last. "No, no, come on," Kai said, hitting himself now in the side of the head with one hand. "Come on! Come on, Kai, do it! Kill him! Just kill him!" Kai shouted at himself like a mad man, the man kneeling before him watching, utterly terrified. Gritting his teeth and trying to gain control of himself again, Kai raised one hand in the air and twisted his wrist, the man's neck snapping instantly, killing him. The man fell over, on to the ground, unmoving.

Kai then fell to his knees himself, holding his head with both hands, his eyes filling with hot, angry tears. "No, no, no, no," Kai muttered to himself. He didn't know what on Earth was going on with himself. He knew he consumed too much of that elixir, hence why it started pouring out of him and his violent inclinations came running back, but this time, they were stronger than before, because he spent all that time mystically repressing them. But his empathy was still there. He was still capable of feeling guilt, that hadn't gone away. And now he just killed an innocent man. A man with children. He was both furious with himself and not at the same time.

 **A Warehouse Somewhere in Mystic Falls...**

Malcolm, Beau, Mary Louise, Nora, and Lily were gathered around inside a warehouse somewhere in Mystic Falls, Lily wearing a perplexed look on her face. "How did any of this happen?" Lily asked. "Stefan told me on the phone that you broke the peace, that you killed a pair of—teenagers."

"Beau and I had nothing to do with the murders of those teenagers," Malcolm confirmed, Nora and Mary Louise scowling at him as he did.

Lily turned to Nora and Mary Louise. "So it was the two of you then, that broke the peace, that killed these kids?"

"It wasn't them alone," Valerie's voice interrupted, Valerie suddenly joining the group, the replacement 1903 ascendant in one hand. "They helped, but it was me who killed those kids. They were actually the same kids that tried to leave me for dead on the road after hitting me with their automobile if you recall."

"I am so disappointed in you Valerie. You too, Nora and Mary Louise. Actually, I'm disappointed in all of you, because all of you were involved in that massacre at the Town Square, with the exception of Valerie," Lily stated.

"We merely retaliated after they tried to kill us," Mary Louise argued.

"Stefan and friends tried to kill you. Those people you killed at the Town Square today more than likely had nothing to do with the attack on your lives."

"Well if you're done scolding us Lily, for protecting ourselves, I would like to announce that I managed to obtain the replacement 1903 ascendant that Kai and the Gemini Coven made in case we broke the peace."

Lily stared down at the ascendant for a moment before nodding. "Good. Let's destroy it. Now, before it falls into the wrong hands."

"Finally something we can agree on," Nora added, Lily throwing her a look.

With that, Valerie siphoned the magic from the 1903 ascendant, the rest of the Heretics watching closely as she did. Then, Valerie waved one hand over the ascendant, muttering a chant, the ascendant instantly catching fire, Valerie dropping it on the ground immediately so she wouldn't get burned. The Heretics watched in satisfaction as the replacement ascendant went up in flames, Malcolm looking the most happy as it did.

 **Salvatore Boarding House...**

Damon sat upright on a couch in the living area of the Boarding House, now conscious again, Elena sitting down next to him, while Stefan, Bonnie and Caroline stood around, the five of them discussing Elena's encounter with Malcolm. "He said he cursed me to die," Elena explained. "Said I now had days left to live, but I—I don't feel any different."

"Then he was probably lying. Just trying to mess with you," Damon offered.

"I wouldn't be so sure. What does Malcolm have to benefit from lying to you about whether you're going to die or not?" Stefan pointed out.

"He does make a good point," Bonnie added.

"Well, can you remember what he said when he was 'cursing' you?" Damon asked.

Elena hesitated. "It was in some foreign language, I know that much. Something like ' _O se kwe pe se'._ "

"Write it down," Bonnie suggested.

Caroline quickly handed Elena a notebook and pen, Elena scribbling the words down on paper, Damon with a somewhat concerned look on his face, not wanting to face the possibility that Elena was actually cursed. If she was, who knows how long it would take them to break said curse, maybe longer than what Elena had. Damon looked over to Bonnie for a moment, Bonnie giving him a silent, reassuring look, which Damon was grateful for.

It was at that moment they heard someone knocking on the door. Hesitantly, Stefan left to go answer it, making his way to the foyer and answering the door, only to see Lily and her band of Heretics standing behind her on the other side, with the exception of Valerie, who was absent. Lily gave Stefan a serious look, Stefan staring back at her uneasily. "Stefan, you and your brother and I need to have a little chat. I'd like to re-negotiate that deal we made a while back," Lily said.


	12. The Heretics, Part Five

The Vampire Diaries: Alternate Season 7

Episode 1: The Heretics

Part Five

 **The Salvatore Boarding House...**

Damon, Stefan, Lily, Beau, Malcolm, Mary Louise and Nora congregated in the living area of the Salvatore Boarding House, Elena, Bonnie and Caroline in the kitchen. While the Salvatore brothers were on one side of the room, sitting on the couch, the Heretics were standing on the other side, most of them with their arms folded.

"You destroyed our home, it only seems fair that you give us yours as compensation," Lily stated, Damon sneering at her as she spoke.

"To be fair we only destroyed said home after your Heretics drained and killed two innocent people," Stefan argued.

Lily sighed. "Those two innocent people were not nearly as innocent as what you thought Stefan. They struck one of us with their car and left her for dead. While I do not approve of how they handled it... the people they killed... one could argue they had it coming. I believe our original deal indicated that if we spilled innocent blood-"

"Okay, even if by some chance those teenagers they killed actually did try to make roadkill out of one of them, I know for a fact those people they killed back in the Town Square, were innocent," Stefan interrupted.

"Perhaps they were, but they were also delicious," Nora said with a sadistic grin on her face, Mary Louise looking over at her and smiling.

" _Nora,_ " Lily said with a stern voice, the smiles instantly fading from Nora and Mary Louise's faces. Lily then addressed her sons again. "The bloodshed in the Town Square would not have occurred had you not made an attempt on their lives."

"You're seriously defending the actions of mass murderers?" Damon asked.

"I'm sorry, but with all due respect, Damon, I'm fairly certain everyone in this room can be considered a mass murderer. We're vampires after all. A little bit of murder just... comes with the job," Malcolm added, Damon glaring at him.

"Regardless, we're not giving up our home to our psychotic mother and her even more psychotic fledglings," Damon replied, looking over at Lily as he spoke. "We're not giving up our home for anybody. Glad we could have this conversation, don't let the door hit any of you on the way out."

Lily threw Damon an unimpressed look. "This conversation isn't finished yet."

"Oh, I believe it is. See, I just ended, and I also asked you all to leave, and you know what none of you are doing right now? _Leaving._ "

"We're not leaving until you agree to hand over the Boarding House," Malcolm jumped in again.

"Then we seem to have reached an impasse."

Malcolm smirked. "Not much of an impasse, seeing as how we could kill both of you right now without blinking. Only reason we haven't is because Lily has given us orders not to," Malcolm paused, Damon and Stefan growing more uneasy while Lily was unsure whether to silence Malcolm or not. "Tell you what though, since I'm interested in moving into his place as soon as possible, I'm going to make you an offer. You hand over the Boarding House, and I'll give you a spell that might save your precious Elena before she croaks."

"Are you threatening my girlfriend?" Damon asked in a hostile tone, Lily throwing Malcolm a look.

"Oh I assure you Damon, I've already killed your girlfriend. More or less. It's only a matter of time now. Surely she told you that I placed a curse on her in the Town Square after I snapped your neck?"

Damon and Stefan grew even more tense. "I don't believe she's actually cursed."

"Well whether you believe it or not, Damon, she is. Actually hexed would be more accurate, I doubt you and your friends have much experience with those. That particular hex we all learned back in 1887. The hex will kill the subject in the matter of days, while preventing the subject from getting out of it. And you can't very well turn her into a vampire again because, she's taken the cure. Her body would merely reject it. However, it is possible to break the hex, given the right spell and ingredients. I would be more inclined to give you the spell if you hand over the Boarding House. That being said, you'll still have to gather all the ingredients and cast the spell before she actually dies."

"Damon, Malcolm isn't lying," Lily added. "That hex is very real and will kill Elena. I would take him up on his offer if I were you."

Damon gritted his teeth, Stefan giving him a concerned look. "Lily, Elena was innocent, she had nothing to do with any of this-"

"She is... somewhat innocent, granted," Lily admitted. "But then my family also hadn't done anything to you six months ago, and you and Bonnie wanted to leave them trapped back in the 1903 Prison World, in fact, you went to great lengths to ensure that's exactly what would happen. Thankfully they did escape, but no thanks to you or your friends. I won't lie to you, I did tell Malcolm to hex Elena should our original deal ever be broken, so we could use her as a bargaining chip to make re-negotiate a new deal."

"And if Elena happens to die from this hex?!"

"I would consider it collateral damage," Lily replied simply. "Now, what we're offering you is this. You give us the Boarding House, and allow us to live in your town, without any threat of harm, and we'll give you the means to save Elena, as well as promise to leave you be from now on. Any dealings we have in the future will be on your terms. It is a very generous offer if you ask me, considering, as Malcolm pointed out, we could have had you both killed the moment we came in—in fact, we still could. But I don't wish to see either of you dead. In spite of what you may think of me, or how you may resent me for what I've done... I did love both of you, before I turned. I—I still do. Unfortunately, both of you just so happen to be a reminder of when I use to be, less than what I am now. When I use to be weak."

While Stefan seemed somewhat moved by what Lily had just said, Damon merely frowned and gritted his teeth, not believing a word of what Lily just said. Damon then turned to look at Stefan, Stefan turning to look back at his older brother. "Well brother, looks like we're moving out. Unless you have any better ideas," Damon said.

Stefan hesitated. "I might actually have one. Kai is a siphoner, and on our side last time I checked. Elena's hex is—magical. Maybe, we could just get him to-"

"I know where you're going with that and let me warn you now, that will not work. If you attempt to siphon the hex from Elena, mark my words, it _will_ kill her," Malcolm warned. "This hex cannot be siphoned. You're only hope is the spell I'm offering to give you, a spell that by the time you find it on your own, Elena will already be dead."

"We'll do it," Damon relented. "You have your new deal. But we're not going anywhere until Elena is no longer dying."

"That's not part of our deal," Lily replied coldly. "You vacate the Boarding House first, and then, and only then we'll give you the spell to break Elena's hex."

Damon hesitated. "Fine. But if she dies before we get the chance to break this hex, we will try and kill you again. And next time, we won't fail."

"If you try and harm my family again, I will not stop them the next time when they retaliate," Lily warned.

 **An Alley Way Somewhere in Boston, Massachusetts...**

A tall man with short, black hair and a stubble, wearing a black leather jacket, a dark red shirt underneath, and black jeans, was walking down an alley way, a troubled look on his face. Suddenly, Alaric appeared out of the shadows, a wooden stake in one hand and unlike the man he was confronting, he had a determined look on his face. "Russell," Alaric said, greeting the man.

Russell eyed Alaric nervously. "Alaric Saltzman. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"You helped my fiance's absentee mother disappear from several databases, making her practically impossible to track," Alaric replied.

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm not stupid, Russell. I know you were involved in making _"Susan McCullough"_ just disappear. The logical part of my brain tells me that all you did was just compel all of the right people. She wouldn't have been able to disappear like that unless she had connections with higher ups who worked for the government, or like I suggested earlier, a vampire just compelled those higher ups for her. And since I know you and "Susan" were friends, and as far as I know you're the only vampire she was friends with... do you see where I'm going with this?"

Russell hesitated. "I don't know what you're talking about. Sorry for wasting your time."

Russell attempted to turn around, only for Alaric to grab him roughly by the shoulder. "You're not going anywhere Russell. Tell me where Selina Parker is, I know you know. You made her disappear, you're probably more than likely still in contact with her. Where, is she?"

Russell smirked. "You may have been a pretty formidable vampire hunter at one point Alaric Saltzman. But that was back when you were one of us. A vampire. An Original Vampire no less. Now you're just an ordinary human again. But apparently you're still just as arrogant, thinking you can threaten a century old vampire."

Russell swiftly turned back around and grabbed Alaric, slamming him on to the ground using his vampire strength and speed, knocking the wooden stake out of his hand in the process, the stake rolling away, out of Alaric's reach. Alaric groaned in pain as Russell kept him pinned down on the ground, Alaric now at the mercy of the century old vampire. "You know, most vampires would kill you right about now. But I'm not most vampires. I lost my appetite for murder long ago. Actually I never really had much of an appetite for killing. But, since I'm pretty sure you're on vervain, I can't just compel you to leave me alone. Which is a problem seeing as you'll probably coming looking for me again and I don't particularly feel like dealing with you again. You see my problem?"

"You know something about my fiance's mother. If you really were one of these 'good' vampires, you would tell me where we could find her."

"I see where you're coming from. And ordinarily I would do just that. But Selina's my friend. A very good friend. My loyalty is to her first."

"So you do know where she is?"

"Of course I do. And you're right, I am the one who helped her disappear. You'll never find her, as long as she doesn't want to be found. I'll make sure of it."

"No, we'll find her," Alaric assured him. "Whether you help us or not, though if you did help us, it would be very much appreciated."

"You're not making this easy Alaric. I might not have the heart, or lack thereof to kill you, but I have no problem beating you, if I have to to discourage you. In fact, I think I'll do just that, since I can't compel you and you clearly won't leave me alone."

Russell then proceeded to punch Alaric several times across the face, holding back a little as he did, until Alaric started to bleed. Russell then stood up, getting off of Alaric, and kicking the former vampire hunter in the belly twice, knocking the air out of Alaric as he did. "Stop looking for Selina. She doesn't want to be found," Russell stated, before using his enhanced vampire speed to leave the alley way, leaving Alaric lying on the ground, beaten and a little bloody.

 **Mystic Falls Church...**

Kai was sitting down next to the man he'd killed early, Kai rocking back and forth, holding his head, crying in frustration and confusion. Suddenly, Bonnie entered the Church, and ran towards Kai once she spotted him, a worried look on her face. When she caught up with Kai, she stared down at the dead body next to him, a somewhat horrified look on her face. "You killed him?" Bonnie asked, looking back at Kai, who had just stopped rocking and holding his head. Now Kai was holding his knees up against his chest, avoiding looking up at Bonnie.

"I—I didn't mean to. At least, part of me didn't mean to. Another part of me... _really_ wanted to. Wanted to kill him more than anything. The elixir... the elixir failed. My violent impulses... they flooded me. I couldn't control it. And now... now somebody's dead. Some suburban dad who apparently had two kids waiting for him to come home. And now he never will. Because I... I—I killed him. In cold blood, I killed this poor man."

"Kai-"

"You wanna tell me how evil I am Bonnie, go ahead. Because I am. I am one of the most wicked creatures to have ever walked this Earth."

"No you're not-"

Kai stood up, growing even more frustrated. "Yes, I am! I am not a good person, I am not even a little good, I am evil, Bonnie. One hundred percent evil. You're standing here, right now, talking to me, and I'm having a hard time listening, and you wanna know why? Because part of me is telling me to take comfort in you, to tell you to leave so I can keep you safe, and another part of me... another part of me is telling me to slit your throat, even if I could down with you, because you've tried to kill me, you've tried to imprison me back in a 1903 Prison World, you hate my guts, and I should hate yours, I should be trying to kill you right now and I should be enjoying myself while I do, having a good laugh about it later. But like I said, part of me doesn't want to. Part of me cares for you more than what I can possibly comprehend. And I hate feeling this conflicted. I _hate it!_ "

"Fight it! Fight whatever evil impulses you have, embrace the good in you that I know exists. Kai, you may not be a good person now, you may be one of the most twisted people I have ever known, but you can change that. You have the power to change that, to be a different person."

"I can't be anything other than what I am right now!" Kai spat back, holding out one hand, staring at Bonnie as he did and chanting, _"motus!"_

Bonnie was suddenly lifted off her feet and sent flying through the air, landing at the front of the Church again, by the double doors. Kai then immediately looked appalled at himself for what he had done by attacking Bonnie like that, but Bonnie was no longer in the sympathetic mood. Instead, Bonnie angrily picked herself up and held out her hand, staring at Kai as she did. _"Motus!"_

Kai was then lifted off his feet as well and hurled through the air, Kai landing against a wall, his back hitting it hard. Kai groaned in pain for a moment, Bonnie walking closer towards him, down the aisle. "If you want me to be your enemy Kai, I can be your enemy. You wanna be bad? You wanna be evil? You wanna be downright wicked? Fine, so be it. Be this despicable person. Just know that I won't let you get away with it. If I have to, I will find a way to sever the link between you and your coven, and I will kill you."

Kai got to his feet again. "You make it sound so simple."

"Because it is... Alright, well, maybe it's not that simple. You'll have to fight the evil in you every day for the rest of the life. Maybe you'll need help sometimes. That's fine. God knows Stefan and Damon need it sometimes. If you want help, seek it—I'll help you, if you want. I will keep you in line as much as I can, because I know you can be a better person than you are now, I know you have it in you to be better than this, better than someone who—murders parents."

Kai paused, before slowly nodding. "Alright. I'll... let you help me. Assuming someone like me can be helped."

Bonnie nodded. "I believe you can be."

 **The Next Day, in Damon and Elena's bedroom, in their new house...**

Elena was sitting at a desk in her and Damon's bedroom, a pen in her hand and her diary opened up to a blank page. _"Dear Diary. Mystic Falls is no longer our town and the Boarding House isn't ours anymore either. It's kind of a complicated story. The peace broke between us and the Heretics and in the process, many innocent people lost their lives, and I was hexed apparently. In order to save my life, Damon and Stefan negotiated a new deal with the Heretics. In exchange for a spell to break the hex, they gave the Heretics the Boarding House. Losing the Boarding House was bad enough, but on top of that, those Heretics are insisting on staying in our town and we know now that they can't be trusted to keep the peace anymore. They're sadistic psychopathic killers. Each and every one of them. They're faster and stronger than any of us, and they're willing to tear our town apart for their own entertainment. We had to protect it._

 _Damon, Stefan and Caroline went door to door, evacuating residents. Drove out businesses, boarded up homes, closed off the town to traffic. Anyone who trespasses now is fair game for the Heretics. We lost our town, we lost our home, with almost no hope of getting any of it back. Kai insists that he can seal them away in the 1994 Prison World, or even make a new ascendant for the 1903 Prison World. He believes if the Heretics could be defeated once they can be defeated again. But we don't wanna risk it. We told him we're not making another move against the Heretics. We failed the last time, and fortunately we survived to tell the tale. If we made another attempt to get rid of them, we would have to succeed with 100% certainty, because I'm pretty sure Lily wouldn't show us the same mercy twice."_

Elena put her pen down and stopped writing once she noticed Damon enter the room from the corner of her eye, a bottle of bourbon in one hand. He gave Elena a grim look. He knew they still had yet to gather all the ingredients for the ritual to break Elena's hex. They would get started on that later today.

 **Town Square, Mystic Falls...**

Caroline had just arrived at the park, heading for the bench dedicated in her mother's name. When she got there, she found Enzo, who had seemingly already beat her to the punch, unscrewing the memorial plaque on the back of it.

"What are you doing with my mom's bench?" Caroline asked warily.

Enzo turned around, looking a little startled to see her. "Oh. I just saw it here, and I thought I'd put it in safekeeping- spare it from any future graffiti damage."

Caroline gave Enzo a suspicious look. "Yeah, I was just about to do the uh, same thing. What's the catch?"

Enzo looked hurt for a moment by the accusation. "Come on! There's no catch. Just trying to cheer you up, Blondie. Not sure if you've noticed, but things are getting a little glum around here."

Caroline narrowed at her eyes at Enzo, to his discomfort. "Oh, I'm sorry. Have... Have I not shown enough glee after uprooting an entire town of innocent people because of you?" Caroline asked sarcastically.

Enzo scoffed. "Me?"

"Yeah!"

Enzo stood to face her, now looking more angry than hurt. "No, don't clump me in with Lily's circus freaks."

"Well, where should I clump you? One day, you're helping Lily, the next you're here being nice. Just _pick a side_ , Enzo. Us or them."

Enzo rolled his eyes. "Oh, God, you sound just like her!"

"That's because she doesn't trust you, and honestly? Neither do I."

With that, Caroline rudely snatched the plaque out of Enzo's hands, turned around and stormed off, leaving Enzo standing there, holding the screwdriver, frowning as he watched Caroline walk away.

 **Lockwood Mansion...**

Liv was standing around in the living area of the Lockwood Mansion, talking on her cellphone to Jo while Tyler was sitting on the couch. "No, no we're alright. I mean we didn't get rid of the Heretics, and now we've had to evacuate an entire town full of people because of them, but we're alright. We're all still breathing," Liv assured Jo. "I'm more worried about your fiance right now."

" _Alaric will be fine. He just got roughed up by a century old vampire, bit off a bit more than he could chew,"_ Jo replied.

"That's good to hear. Listen, just promise me, because it's not safe here anymore, that you and Alaric never step foot back in this town again. Ever. I don't want see either of you getting hurt anymore than you already have, and I really don't want to see anything bad happen to my future nieces and/or nephews."

" _What about you? Please tell me you're not staying there. If you're allowed to worry about my safety, I'm allowed to worry about yours."_

Liv hesitated. "Tyler and I will be going back to Whitmore next month. Until then... yeah, we're staying in Mystic Falls. Just in case they need us."

" _Liv-"_

"I'm sorry, I have to go now Jo. Take care, love you, bye," Liv said quickly, hanging up her phone and letting out a sigh, turning back to look at Tyler.

"Any reason why you suddenly hung up on your pregnant sister with the banged up fiance?" Tyler asked in a concerned tone.

"Not a good reason," Liv admitted. "I don't think Jo's going to approve of me hanging out in a mostly abandoned town for the next month, inhabited by witchpires who hold a grudge against the Gemini Coven and Gemini Witches in particular."

"I can see why she wouldn't approve," Tyler replied. "Wouldn't wanna see my little sister become Heretic food either."

"Don't tell me you're going to start nagging me about getting out of Mystic Falls too-"

"I think we should both get out of Mystic Falls. I can't possibly be of any help to the gang, I'm an untriggered werewolf, and you're-"

"I'm a witch, and a member of the Gemini Coven. Makes me a pretty powerful ally."

"An ally that could easily be taken out should the Heretics decide to target you," Tyler pointed out.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the front door. Confused, Tyler got up off the couch and started making his way out of the room and towards the front door, Liv following closely behind. When Tyler opened the door, he saw a young woman standing on the other side, a smile on her face, her arms wide open, waiting for a hug, to Tyler's further confusion. At that moment, Liv walked up to the woman, smiling just as brightly as this woman was, hugging her. "Lissa!"

"Lissa?" Tyler asked.

Liv stopped hugging the woman for a moment, turning to look at Tyler. "Tyler, this is my childhood best friend, Alyssa, but I call her Lissa for short. She's also a witch and a member of my coven."

"You're still part of the coven? Could've fooled me," Alyssa teased. "Anyways, where am I going to be staying for the next few days?" Alyssa asked as she stepped foot into the house, Tyler and Liv standing aside, Liv smiling while Tyler continued to look confused.

 **August 8th, 2017, the Salvatore Boarding House...**

Liv and Tyler were sitting in the same room that Lily was once held in in the basement of the Salvatore Boarding House, Tyler sitting on one side of the cell, Liv sitting on the other, both of them in shackles, Tyler just barely conscious. "Tyler?" Liv said quietly.

Tyler looked over at Liv. "I'm awake... Barely," Tyler confirmed.

Liv crawled over towards him, positioning herself next to him on the ground. "These shackles, they prevent me from doing any magic. I—I don't know how we're going to get out of here."

"The others will come for us," Tyler assured her. "They're not going to just leave us here with a bunch of psychotic witchpires."

"But if they hope to rescue us, they're going to have to go through said psychotic witchpires... Who are now in possession of two of the most powerful magical objects in existence. If they confront the Heretics, they're going to get themselves killed. I don't think we can rely on them to come to our rescue."

"Then... I don't know. I don't wanna think that we're just... completely screwed down here. Why did they even take us anyways? What good could we possibly be to them, they already have the stones, they got what they wanted. Why take us?"

"I don't know, maybe... maybe because you're a werewolf and I'm a member of the Gemini Coven."

Then an idea popped into Tyler's head. It all suddenly made sense. "They wanna use you to lure Kai back to Mystic Falls. If they kill him, your entire coven goes down with him."

Liv scoffed. "You think Kai would drag his ass all the way back to Mystic Falls for my sake?"

"I do. In his own twisted way, he does care about you. As soon as he hears they have you, it'll come running back to Mystic Falls to save you. Which is exactly what they want. Take out your whole coven in one shot."

"...Let's just say that is their reason for taking me, that still doesn't explain why they took you."

"Nope, it doesn't," Tyler admitted. He then turned to look at Liv, giving his girlfriend a meaningful look.

"Tyler, if by some miracle we do make it out of this Boarding House alive-"

"Hey, don't talk like that. We're going to get out of here, we're going to get through this. I promise."

"You don't know that for certain. Things are looking kinda bad right now. I would say there's a pretty good chance we could die in this basement-"

"Liv I don't wanna have this conversation right now, or ever, I refuse-"

"I love you Tyler. I _love you_. Please, just let me finish. I love you. And if we do make it out of here alive, I don't wanna spend another day of my life just being your girlfriend. I want to... I want to be more than that."

Tyler smiled a little. "Liv, are you proposing to me?"

Liv's eyes started to fill with tears. "I was actually hoping you would finish this part for me."

"Alright then. I'll finish. Liv, I never thought.." Tyler paused, his eyes starting to fill with tears as well, Liv laughing a little through her own tears as he did. "I never thought that I'd meet someone I'd actually wanna spend the rest of my life with, someone who would... be my wife. Liv, you've made me happier than I ever thought I could be, more happy than I deserve to be. And if you want, if you'll let me... I'll do everything I can to try and make you half as happy as you make me feel. Liv, will you... will you marry me?"

Liv nodded, too choked up by her own tears to speak. She then wrapped her shackled hands around the back of Tyler's neck, the two kissing one another on the lips passionately.

 **A/N:** _Hopefully everyone enjoyed this long chapter. It officially marks the end of my 7x01 AU, the Heretics. The next chapter will be the beginning of 7x02, so stay tuned for folks. Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, feedback is always appreciated._


	13. Pardon my Past, Part One

Episode 2: Pardon My Past

Part One

 **The Lockwood Mansion, August 8th, 2017...**

Damon, Bonnie and Kai entered through the front doors of the Lockwood Mansion, the three of them taking their shoes off, before being greeted by Elena and Caroline, both girls pulling Bonnie in for a big group hug while Damon and Kai stood around awkwardly for a moment until the hug was done. The five of them then went into the living area of the Lockwood Mansion, Elena, Caroline and Bonnie sitting down on one couch while Damon and Kai sat on another, Elena and Caroline looking overjoyed to see their friend again while Bonnie looked just a little bit uncomfortable, to Kai's concern.

"So how have you been?" Caroline asked, looking at Bonnie.

"Good. For the most part. But I think we should focus on Tyler and Liv right now, and the fact that the Heretics not only have them but are now in possession of the most powerful magical objects in existence," Bonnie replied. "Kind of a big deal from what I understand."

"It is," Elena added with a grim look on her face. "...We have no idea if they're still alive actually."

"They better be," Kai jumped in. "Not a huge fan of Lockwolf but if they did anything to Liv... I'll cut up every Heretic into _tiny_ little pieces while I make Lily watch."

Elena threw Kai a slightly unsettled look. "Good to see you haven't changed too much Kai."

"What can I say, the violent sociopath in me never died."

"And right now, we're all glad it didn't, because I have a feeling we're going to need that violent sociopath sooner rather than later," Damon replied. "Also, where did the rest of the gang run off to? You know, my brother, Enzo, Ric-"

"All three of them are back at Stefan's place, working on a plan to save Tyler and Liv without getting into a direct confrontation with the Heretics. Valerie's also there if you were wondering, Jo and her girls have gone to hide at Jo's mother until the Heretics have been dealt with," Caroline interrupted. "Was _not_ easy trying to convince her to leave when her sister had been kidnapped."

"Can't imagine it was," Kai said matter of factly.

Just then, Caroline's cellphone began to vibrate rapidly, an obnoxious ringtone going off while it did. Quickly, Caroline took out her phone from her pant pocket and answered the call, after seeing it was from Enzo. _"Hello gorgeous,"_ Enzo opened with, Caroline rolling her eyes and smiling a little as he did.

"What's going on?" Caroline asked.

 **Mystic Falls Cemetery...**

Damon was standing next to Bonnie in the Mystic Falls cemetery, an open grave, a half empty tank of gasoline and a closed casket before them, Damon holding a lighter in one hand, while Bonnie was holding a piece of paper that had a list of ingredients written on it, along with a spell that would break Elena's hex, the list having been written by Malcolm himself, as part of the deal that involved Damon giving the Salvatore Boarding House over to Lily and her Heretics. "Are we really going to do this Damon?" Bonnie asked. "Cremate somebody's remains against their wishes just to help Elena?"

"Is that even a question Bon-Bon? Of course we're going to do this, this is Elena we're talking about. Assuming Malcolm isn't sending us on some wild goose chase, we need and I quote 'the ashes of the dead'. Hence why we just went through all the trouble of digging this fresh grave up. We're also going to need five black candles and the blood of the person who cast the hex, which Malcolm was _nice_ enough to provide. Then... well the instructions are all on that piece of paper you got."

With that, Damon flicked the lighter on and tossed it on to the casket, watching the casket as it quickly went up in flames with a cold, detached look on his face. Bonnie, however, was watching the casket burn with a more remorseful look. Elena was her best friend, she was practically like a sister to her, and there was nothing she wouldn't do for her, but that didn't mean she was heartless, this was the remains of somebody's loved one they were destroying. But then what did it matter now? Nobody could visit any loved ones buried in this cemetery anymore because the entire town had been evacuated, and anyone who came into town now, would be guilty of tresspassing. Besides, it would be stupid to choose the dead over the living, Bonnie told herself. Especially when the living person in question was your dying best friend.

 **Damon and Elena's House in Mystic Falls...**

Elena was sitting on the couch in the living room of her new home in Mystic Falls, Caroline sitting next to her, on her left, while Stefan was sitting next to her on her right. In front of the couch was a coffee table, and a few feet in front of the coffee table, was a stand with an expensive looking TV set on top.

Elena hadn't told anyone yet that she was already starting to feel the physical effects of Malcolm's hex. She already felt a growing pain in her chest and her sinuses were aching. She hadn't planned on telling anyone either, she knew that Damon and Bonnie would save her before the hex finally took her. At least that's what she was counting on. She didn't really believe she was going to die from this. She had already survived so much, that to die from a hex cast by a vampire-witch hybrid... seemed a little incredible for her.

"So, how are you feeling now?" Stefan asked.

Elena rolled her eyes. "I swear you guys have already asked me that same question a dozen times since you came over today," Elena replied.

"We'll stop asking it when we know you're no longer hexed. Until then, I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with us asking that same question over and over again."

Elena groaned in an exaggerated manner, Stefan and Caroline both smiling a little at this. "So did I tell you guys that Enzo tried to earn points with me by giving me my mother's bench?" Caroline asked, Elena and Stefan shaking their heads. "He told me he wanted to save it from any 'future graffiti damage', but... kinda funny coming from him since he's besties with Lily these days."

"Doesn't mean he agrees or likes everything she does," Elena pointed out. "I mean, as far as we can tell, the only reason why he's gotten so chummy with Lily is because she's his sire, the closest thing he has to family really."

"Damon's my sire, and I don't feel any loyalty towards him. Or see him as family," Caroline argued.

"That's different. You hated Damon before you turned-" Stefan started, only for Caroline to interrupt him.

"I didn't hate Damon until after I remembered everything he compelled me to forget."

"Also, let's not forget you still had your mother. I don't remember Enzo ever mentioning anything about his human family, do you?" Elena asked Caroline.

"I vaguely remember Enzo telling me he was an orphan a while back," Caroline admitted.

Stefan and Elena looked unphased by this new piece of information. "That explains a lot now that you mention it," Stefan added.

"Still—you're missing the point, he's friends with Lily, which means he can't be friends with us. Lily's our enemy, meaning anyone who's friends with Lily becomes our enemy too by association. Which is exactly what I told him... more or less. That he can't pretend to be my friend then hang out with Lily and be all buddy-buddy with her at the same time."

Stefan didn't argue this, instead nodding half heartedly. "Makes sense. Also he did set out to ruin my life at one point so I don't feel all that obligated to defend him."

"I think we should cut him just a little bit of slack myself," Elena added, to Stefan and Caroline's surprise. "If he was ever forced to choose between us and Lily, he's only known Lily for a little over six months maybe? He's known you and Damon a lot longer, I'm confident he would pick you two over her."

Caroline considered this for a moment. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

 **Lockwood Mansion...**

Tyler was once again sitting on a couch in the living area of the Lockwood Mansion, Liv and Alyssa sitting on the only other couch in the room, catching up with one another. "It's so good to see you Lissa, I haven't you since-"

"The wedding from hell?" Alyssa asked, finishing Liv's sentence for her.

Liv nodded. "Yeah. Certainly was," Liv admitted. "Seven witches dead, four humans. All killed by my psychotic older brother who somehow found a way to escape not one, but two prison worlds."

"And both our fathers were among the dead," Alyssa added. "But while Kai meant to kill your dad mine was more... _collatoral damage_ ," Alyssa went on, bitterly spitting the last couple of words out. "A falling piece of glass cut into his carotid artery. "I can still remember trying to stop the bleeding with my bare hands, but... I didn't know what I was doing."

Both Liv and Tyler gave Alyssa a look of deep sympathy. "I'm so sorry," Liv replied, taking Alyssa's hands into hers.

"Wasn't your fault. It was Kai's. He was the one who killed him. He also killed six other witches that day, all members of our coven. Any other coven would've revolted and picked a new leader after killing the old one in retribution. But we can't. Because if Kai goes down-"

"We all go down," Liv finished. "Every last one of us. But once the new leader is selected, whenever that is... there will be nothing left to stop us from killing him."

"Nope. But until then... we have different threat to deal with. The Heretics. From what I've been told you guys evacuated this entire town's human population because you couldn't figure out how to get rid of them."

"It's not that we don't know how... we just tried and failed. Spectacularly," Liv replied.

"They all have the powers of a vampire and a witch, and there's five of them. We didn't stand a chance," Tyler added.

"Of course you did. You guys could've called in the rest of our coven and had us banish them to one of the Prison Worlds. I know that's what Kai wanted to do."

"Yes but for some reason we decided it would be easier to kill them instead, but then again people do have a bad habit of escaping from those Prison Worlds," Liv said in a dejected tone. "Our _leader_ being a good example of that."

Alyssa seemed unimpressed with this response. "Well you can't just let a bunch of supernatural psychopaths have control over an entire town."

"Last time we tried to do something about them, people died," Tyler jumped in again. "My friend Matt who also lives here, his entire graduating glass from the police academy was murdered, save for him because we tried to do something about those supernatural psychopaths."

Alyssa looked genuinely sympathetic upon hearing this piece of information. "I hadn't heard that part of the story yet. How's he—how's he coping?"

Tyler calmed down a little. "He's pretty shaken up. He's been holed up in his room ever since... I should probably go check on him, see how he's doing, give you two a chance to talk just the two of you."

Tyler got up off the couch and left the living area, leaving Liv and Alyssa by themselves.

 **Matt's Bedroom in the Lockwood Mansion...**

Matt sat on the side of his bed, a mournful look on his face as he stared down at the badge in his hands, slowly rubbing the badge with his fingers. Every last one of his graduating class was taken out in one fell swoop, by these supernatural terrorists who they just more or less gave their entire town to. Even though he knew the only people he should be blaming for the deaths of his fellow officers were the Heretics, Matt couldn't help but partly blame himself. After all, he partook in the plan to bomb the Heretics, and the Heretics surely wouldn't have killed all those people had they not made an attempt on their lives, or at least that's what Matt was thinking at this very moment in time, that had they not tried to kill the Heretics, the Heretics wouldn't have struck at the town's square the way they did.

Suddenly, Matt heard someone knocking on his bedroom door. "Who is it?" Matt asked with a heavy sigh.

"It's Tyler. Your roommate, and best friend last time I checked."

"Door's open. You can come in."

Tyler then opened up the door to Matt's bedroom, walked in and sat down beside Matt on the bed, giving his best friend a look of concern once he noticed the badge in Matt's hands. "I'm sorry, for what those monsters did to you," Tyler said after a moment of silence.

"They didn't do anything to me. It was everybody else in my graduating class that got hurt. And Elena too apparently. I heard from Bonnie one of the Heretics hexed her before that battle at the Town's Square ended."

"She was, but Bonnie and Damon are working on breaking said hex as we speak."

"I kinda expected they would be. They care too much about Elena to let anything happen to her. Not that I don't care about Elena too, I do, I just... feel completely useless right now."

Tyler hesitated. "I get that. God knows I felt useless after my mom died. I actually blamed myself for her death for the longest time. But eventually... I realized it wasn't my fault. I wasn't the one who killed her. And it wasn't my fault that someone did. I am responsible for no one else's actions but my own."

"It wasn't your fault," Matt replied blankly.

"Just like it wasn't your fault that the Heretics up and murdered your entire graduating class."

This time Matt hesitated. "I know."

"See I don't think you do. I think a part of you is telling yourself right about now that if you hadn't snuck in and set that bomb in the Heretics' home, all those people that died in the Town's Square would still be alive right now."

"They would be," Matt said quietly.

"...Maybe they would. I don't know. But it wasn't your fault that these psychopaths retaliated by slaughtering innocent people, anymore than it is my fault that Klaus killed my mother."

"That's a completely different situation-"

"No, it's not. Matt, listen to me," Tyler paused, putting one hand on Matt's shoulder, Matt turning his head to look at Tyler, waiting for what he had to say next. "None of this is your fault. I need you to believe that, because the sooner you do, the better off you'll be. This was not your fault, none of this, was _your_ fault."

"Ty, I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but I really don't need anyone trying to go all _Good Will Hunting_ on me."

Tyler smiled. "It's not your fault."

"Come on Ty."

"I'll stop doing it when you start believing it. It's not your fault."

"I know."

"No, listen to me. It's not your fault... It's not your fault."

At that moment, Matt's eyes started to flood with tears. "People are dead Ty! People who had nothing to do with any of this... Heretic bullcrap. People I knew! Some had their throats ripped out, some were... burned. I heard the screams of each... and _every one of them_. They... _oh god_. _Oh god._ "

With that, Tyler wrapped his arms around Matt and hugged his now sobbing friend, Matt dropping the badge to the bedroom floor as he did to embrace Tyler. "They're going, they're all gone," Matt sobbed.

Tyler patted his friend on the back as he continued to hug him, trying to console him. "I know, it's gonna be alright buddy. It's gonna be alright."

 **A/N:** _Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review if you do, or leave a review if you didn't like it, feedback of all kinds is always welcome._


	14. Another Update

Another Update

So you may noticed there hasn't been an update in well... ever, it might seem. This is because I've been struggling with both depression and university lately. Actually my struggles with a few of my classes this semester has been kinda fueling my depression so... yeah. However, this being said, I don't want to discontinue this story, or my Originals Season Three because I hate the idea of leaving this story unfinished. But I don't have the time to devote to it at the moment. I don't really know where I'm going to go from here.

An idea I had is that maybe I could have rotary writers like with an actual television show, where sometimes there's a different writer for different episodes. If I do go that route, I would still write most of the episodes, and finished episode 2 obviously (Each episode is typically 4-6 chapters long), but I might have a different writer for some episodes, it would have to be someone who follows this story obviously, and you would have to submit the chapters to me once you're done, and I would post them, but you would get the credit of course. Also if anyone wants to volunteer for this, you'd have some input on where the story goes.

I'm sorry that it's turned into this, I didn't intend for this to happen, I thought everything was going to go a lot smoother and I would have more of the story done by now.


	15. Pardon My Past, Part Two

Episode 2: Pardon My Past

Part Two

 _ **A/N:** Thank you to those of you who are still reading. I appreciate your patience. I can't promise this chapter is my best chapter but it definitely sets the stage for things to come._

 **The Basement of the Salvatore Boarding House...**

Malcolm sat strapped down to a wooden chair in a cell in the basement of the Salvatore Boarding House, his sire Lily standing before him, her arms folded, a stoic look on her face. Malcolm looked down at his restraints, noting that they were nothing more than tight ropes soaked with vervain. He also suspected that Lily injected some vervain directly into his carotid artery while he was unconscious, explaining why he felt so sluggish and weak.

"With all do respect, is all this really necessary Lily?" Malcolm asked, lifting his head and looking up into Lily's eyes as he did.

Lily remained stoic. "I'm afraid it is. We both know what drinking too much blood does to rippers like us Malcolm. So until you've come down from your 'high'... I'm afraid you'll have to stay here, tied up in this cell."

Malcolm snarled, suddenly becoming agitated. "This is ridiculous. You know there was a time in which we drank to our heart's content, when we—reveled in our bloodshed. What happened to that Lily? During that time—we were far happier than what we are now! Now we're... miserable. Each and every one of us!"

"Listen to you Malcolm, you're sounding like Nora and Mary Louise. Just yesterday you passed up an extra cup of blood—just because you knew you already had your fill. And now-"

"When I passed up that extra cup I wasn't myself now was I? You may think I'm not myself when I've drunk too much blood but I assure you Lily, I haven't felt so much like myself again in a century now. Please, Lily, let me go. Mary Louise is right, Heretics are not meant to coexist with humans—humans are our food! Our drink! And sometimes, our pets. But they are not our equals and we should not treat them as though they are our equals."

"Malcolm it's that way of thinking that got us landed in that dreaded Prison World in the first place. You'll understand again, after all this blood has passed out of your system."

Malcolm shook his head. "No, no I don't want to think any differently! Lily, let me go. _Now._ "

"I'm sorry, Malcolm. But I can't."

Malcolm struggled weakly against his restraints. After realizing that there was no way he could muster enough strength to free himself, he hissed at Lily. "Then go. Go and leave your _oldest son_ here to _rot_."

"I'm sorry Malcolm but I can't do that either. And it's because I love you, that I can't do that. So I plan to stay here with you, and be here for you until the blood passes out of your system. And there's nothing you can do or say to stop me."

Malcolm grunted. "Fine. Stay. I guarantee you will come to regret that decision in an hour or two... _mother Lily_."

Lily frowned as she stared at Malcolm for a moment, knowing the kind of awful things that rippers tend to say after drinking copious amounts of human blood. "You know, that spell, that I gave Damon, the spell that will allow them to break Elena's hex... they're going to need her to make physical contact with me and soon, if they hope to actually break it. Will I be restrained for that?" Malcolm asked.

Lily sighed. "Unfortunately you will be."

"Of course," Malcolm grunted.

 **The Basement of Kai's Home in Mystic Falls...**

Kai stood in the basement of his home in Mystic Falls, a piece of white chalk in one hand, a conflicted look on his face. Before him, was a large, white circle he had drawn with the chalk, and inside the circle, was a triangle he had also just drawn, and inside the triangle, laid the corpse of the man Kai had murdered back in the Church, where he lost control of himself. He believed that if he just resurrected the man, he could relieve himself of any feelings of guilt or remorse he had over killing him, or at least, this is what he was hoping the result would be.

Outside the triangle, but inside the circle, was a small little circle made of salt, and inside the salt circle, laid the Stone of Osiris. According to the Book of Rebirth, Kai also needed the blood of two individuals who knew the deceased to be resurrected before they died, but Kai wondered, since the man was so recently dead, if he could just skip that part of the resurrection process. He would find out soon enough.

Kai then tossed the piece of chalk on to the ground, turned around, bent over and picked up the Book of Rebirth, which was lying on the floor behind him while he was drawing the circle. Next, Kai opened up the book to the page he wanted, the page that contained the spell he would need to resurrect this man. When Kai found the spell, he took a deep breath in and began to read the spell out loud, desperately hoping the spell would work, even though he was missing two vital ingredients.

"Keeper of the Dead, Here me now. I've suffered, I've mourned, I've bled. Accept my offering. Give me back what you have taken. Bone, flesh, blood, breathe. Restore. Bone, flesh, blood, breathe. Restore. Bone, flesh, blood, breathe. Restore!" Kai chanted, a gust of wind blowing around in the basement of Kai's home, twin trails of blood pouring down from Kai's nostrils as he chanted. "Restore! Restore!"

Suddenly, Kai's dipped back, against his will, his eyes turning completely white, his whole body starting to shake violently. Next, the ground beneath him began to shake as well, as Kai's mind was filled with images of the man he was trying to resurrect, glimpsing the man sitting on a church bench, praying, then seeing the man being present for the birth of his twin daughters, and finally, seeing the man trying to swallow copious amounts of prescription pills in his bathroom.

At that moment, Kai's eyes returned to normal, his vision returned, his nose stopped bleeding and the ground ceased shaking. After taking a moment to catch his breath, Kai looked over at the man in the triangle, sighing when he saw that the man still looked just as dead as before. "Well, looks like I'll have to try again at a later date," Kai lamented.

Then, unexpectedly, the man's eyelids opened, and he started gasping for air, Kai's heart skipping a beat, startled by the man's resurrection, even though it was the goal he had in mind. Next, Kai stepped inside the circle, wandering over towards the man, kneeling down next to him and helping him sit upright, the man wearing a disoriented look on his face. "Just take it easy alright?" Kai said to the man, the man turning to look at Kai.

"Where—where the hell am I? Who are you? Who... who am I?"

"The answer to your first question, would be the basement of my home, I assure you, not as creepy as what it might sound. As for the answer to your second question, my name is Kai Parker, I'm a witch and the leader of the very powerful Gemini Coven, also the one who just brought you back to the land of the living... after killing you. And your name, if the wallet you had on you at the time of your death was anything to go by, is Richard Morgan."

"You—you killed me?" Richard asked.

Kai flashed Richard a look of guilt and regret. "I did."

"You... you killed me."

"I know. And I'm sorry. But I figure raising you from the dead might kinda make up for it? What do you say, we reunite you with your girls, pretend all of this was just a bad dream, and you go back to going about your day to day life?"

" _You killed me,_ " Richard half growled.

"So... I take it that's a 'no'?"

Suddenly, Richard placed his hands around Kai's neck and started to squeeze, attempting to strangle him. Panicked, Kai put his hands on Richard's wrists and tried to force the man's hands off of his neck. When that didn't work, Kai stared deeply into Richard's eyes and muttered the word _"somnum"_ under his breathe, somnum being the Latin word for sleep. As soon as Kai finished saying the word, Richard instantly lost consciousness, releasing Kai and collapsing on to the floor beside him, Kai standing up and putting his hands around his throat, once again, trying to catch his breathe, staring down at Richard's unconscious body with a mildly horrified look on his face.

"A simple no would've sufficed," Kai remarked. Kai then turned his attention over to the Stone of Osiris, which was still glowing a bright green, to Kai's concern. Was Richard's sudden attempt on his life motivated by the fact that he killed him, or was it a side effect of having skipped the blood ingredients of the resurrection ritual? Or was it both? He'd have to find out sooner rather than later.

 **Damon and Elena's House in Mystic Falls...**

Damon and Bonnie entered into the living room of Damon and Elena's house, Elena, Caroline and Stefan still sitting on the couch, Damon carrying a black backpack while Bonnie was carrying an urn full of ashes. Bonnie placed the ashes on the coffee table while Damon dropped the backpack down beside the coffee table.

"That's everything," Damon said, looking at Elena with a smile on his face. "In that backpack are five black candles and a vial filled with the blood of the one who cast the hex, AKA Heretic Malcolm. Oh, and in that jar Bonnie just put down are the ashes of some dead guy formerly buried in Mystic Falls Cemetary. Anytime you wanna get started on breaking that hex of yours-"

"I'm thinking we should probably start sooner rather than later," Elena interrupted.

"My thoughts exactly," Damon replied. "Of course casting the spell with these ingredients won't be enough. We'll still have to get you to make physical contact with Malcolm afterwards to fully break the hex."

"Assuming Malcolm hasn't skipped town yet," Caroline added.

"Can't really see him doing that Blondie since all his family is here. Besides, as crazy as she is, Lily knows I'll declare open season on her and her merry band of freaks if something happens to Elena because of her."

"Still, in theory if Malcolm just evades us until Elena's time runs out, there's nothing we can do."

"Why on Earth are you playing worst case scenario in a time like this?"

Caroline shrugged. "Just saying. We're expecting a 'merry band of freaks' as you put it to keep to their word."

"And like I said minutes ago, I won't hesitate to try and kill them again if anything happens to Elena, except if I make another attempt on their pathetic lives, I won't fail. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how the hell they manage to survive getting bombed. Seriously, how could you and Donovan screw up something so simple as a bomb?"

"We didn't screw up! They—Matt and I don't know what happened either. As far as we knew, Heretics weren't bomb proof and I know for a fact that crappy little house they were living in went up in flames with them inside. So it wasn't anything we did."

Damon sneered. "I'm sure it wasn't."

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by a few drops of blood running down from Elena's nose, Damon and Bonnie's eyes widening as they watched. Elena took out a tissue from her pocket and put it to her bleeding nose, Stefan giving her a look of deep concern before looking over to Bonnie and Damon. "Let's get to work on breaking that hex, shall we?"

A speechless Damon nodded.

 **The Living Room of the Lockwood Mansion...**

"So what's your plan for dealing with Mystic Falls' Heretic problem?" Liv asked Alyssa, an intrigued look on her face as she did.

"Back in 1903, when Lily and the Heretics were first banished to that Prison World, the Gemini Coven was under the rule of a very powerful witch, Raymond Parker the first, you and the rest of your immediate family are a direct descendant of his," Alyssa replied.

"My uncle had the same name as his. The uncle that died merging with my dad," Liv noted.

"Back to the story, as powerful as Ray and the Gemini Coven was at the time, they still weren't as powerful as when your dad and the coven were when they sealed Kai away. Ray had to channel a magical object if he hoped to banish the Heretics to a prison world pocket dimension. This object he used... it was a stone. A stone that supposedly came from Ancient Egypt, called the Stone of Osiris. The Stone was traditionally used in resurrection rituals but the Stone can more or less be used for any kind of ritual or spell. Liv, that stone contains more magic than any other object on Earth. It's also been in the possession of the Gemini Coven for 700 hundred years now. I'm willing to bet that Kai came into possession of it once he became the leader of the coven and I'm also willing to bet that he knows exactly where it is."

"Lissa—sealing them away wouldn't be the problem. If they can escape once, they'll escape again. Prison Worlds aren't exactly known these days for their reliability."

"Liv, whatever they used to get out of the 1903 Prison World-"

"Kai said it was this rock from Nova Scotia loaded with Bennett witch blood-"

"I don't think they'll be able to escape the same way twice. Come on, you've tried killing them once and it didn't work, in fact, not only did it not work but it got a lot of people killed by the sounds of it. Sealing them away again is more than doable through the use of that Stone. Plus it would confirm to me that Kai does indeed have the Stone."

Liv gave Alyssa a look of concern and confusion. "Why is this stone so important to you Lissa?"

Alyssa hesitated. "What if I told you that Stone is the key to unlinking every Gemini witch from the monster that is Kai Parker?"

 **The Basement of Kai's Home in Mystic Falls...**

Kai stood over Richard's still unconscious body, holding a cellphone up to one ear. "Hey, Elijah, me again. Don't suppose... Katherine—was it? Went into a crazy homicidal rage after she was resurrected, did she?" Kai paused. "...She didn't. I see. Well, thanks for answering my question anyways... It's kinda complicated. I might've just used the Stone to resurrect someone, and let's just say, it did not go as planned."

With that, Kai hung up his cellphone and slipped it into his pocket, before kneeling down next to the unconscious Richard, staring at the man's face as he did. "Well... what are we going to do with you? I mean I could kill you again but that really wouldn't relieve me of any feelings of guilt I have surrounding your murder. I can't very well let you kill me... And I have only an idea of what went wrong and I have no idea to fix it. You know, I have this unshakeable feeling that all of this would've somehow turned out better had I not cut corners in the resurrection process... But then, you are—or were, only human. Who's to say I can't just have a vampire compel you to behave the way you did before you died?"

 **Jo and Alaric's Apartment in Boston...**

Alaric was sitting down on a couch in his apartment next to Jo, still in a bit of pain after getting roughed up by the vampire Russell, who Alaric knew for a fact had ties to Selina, and might be the only one who knew where she actually was. "I have to hit Russell up for information again. He's our only lead, I'll just... Have to wait until I've recovered more first," Alaric said to Jo.

"Ric, no. You're not confronting anymore vampires in shady alley ways. I'm putting my foot down on this one," Jo insisted.

"How else are we going to find your mother, he might very well be the only one who knows where the hell she went," Alaric argued. "Our only other option is to get a very powerful witch to cast another locator spell, and the most powerful witch we know is Kai and we both know we're not going to him for help-"

"I know a witch who might be close to Kai's level, power wise. A witch who's been practising from a very young age. My aunt Deborah, Liv and I call her Aunt Debbie. We're not exactly on the best of terms these days, kinda way I didn't bring her up before. She still lives in Portland, Oregon last I checked. Although convincing her to do a locator spell, for my absentee mother of all people, might not be the easiest task in the world. Her and my mother didn't really see eye to eye on... well, anything. But I think we'll have an easier time getting her to help then getting Russell to spill his guts."

"You never know, he might be the type to break under torture."

"How are you going to subdue him Ric? Let's just make the trip to Portland."

"...Alright. Let's go."


End file.
